Breakdown of In Nederland drink je veel koffie, dat is de gewoonte.
zijn
to be
veel
much / many / a lot of
drinken
to drink
in
in
de koffie
the coffee
dat
that (het-words)
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
Nederland
the Netherlands
de gewoonte
the habit
Questions & Answers about In Nederland drink je veel koffie, dat is de gewoonte.
Does je refer to me specifically, or people in general?
It refers to people in general. Just like in English, the Dutch word je (you) is very often used as an indefinite pronoun meaning "one" or "people". So this sentence really means "People in the Netherlands drink a lot of coffee."
Why is it drink je and not drinkt je?
Because of a special spelling rule for the "you" form. When je or jij comes directly after the verb, you drop the -t ending. Because this sentence starts with the phrase In Nederland, the verb and subject have to swap places (inversion). So, the normal je drinkt becomes drink je.
Could I use the formal word men (one) instead of je?
Yes, you could completely correctly say In Nederland drinkt men veel koffie. However, men sounds quite formal and is mostly used in written text or the news. In everyday spoken Dutch, je is much more common. Notice that if you use men, the verb keeps its -t ending (drinkt men).
What exactly does dat refer to in the second part of the sentence?
dat (that) points back to the entire situation described in the first half of the sentence: the act of drinking a lot of coffee. You use dat to summarize it, meaning "that whole thing is the custom."
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