Word
Bij een afspraak geef je elkaar een hand.
Meaning
At an appointment you shake hands.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Bij een afspraak geef je elkaar een hand.
een
a/an
de afspraak
the appointment
bij
at / near / by
geven
to give
Questions & Answers about Bij een afspraak geef je elkaar een hand.
Does je refer to me specifically here?
No, here je acts as an indefinite pronoun, similar to how we use "you" or "one" in English for general statements. It means "people in general," so the sentence is explaining the normal custom for everyone, not giving you a specific command.
Why is the word order geef je instead of je geeft?
This is because of a rule called inversion. The sentence starts with the phrase Bij een afspraak (At an appointment). In Dutch, if a main clause starts with anything other than the subject, the verb must come next, pushing the subject (je) right after it.
I learned that men also means "one" or "people in general." Could I use that here?
Yes, you could say geeft men, but men sounds quite formal and is mostly found in written texts or news reports. In everyday spoken Dutch, using je is much more natural and common for general statements.
How does the phrase elkaar een hand geven translate to "shake hands"?
The word elkaar means "each other." The Dutch expression for shaking hands is literally "giving each other a hand." So instead of a single verb for shaking, Dutch uses geef (give) combined with elkaar (each other) and een hand (a hand).