Breakdown of In Nederland verwacht je geen fooi.
geen
no / not any
in
in
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
Nederland
the Netherlands
de fooi
the tip
verwachten
to expect
Questions & Answers about In Nederland verwacht je geen fooi.
Does je mean "you" or "one" here?
It means "one" or "people in general". Just like the generic "you" in English, Dutch uses je to talk about general rules or habits. There is a specific word for "one" in Dutch (men), but it sounds very formal. In everyday speech, everyone just uses je.
Why is the verb verwacht placed before the subject je?
Because the sentence starts with the phrase In Nederland instead of the subject. In Dutch, if you put anything other than the subject in the first position, the verb must come second, pushing the subject to the third spot. This is called inversion. If you started with the subject, it would be: Je verwacht in Nederland geen fooi.
I learned that verbs lose their -t ending when je comes after them. Why does verwacht je still have a -t?
That is a great rule to remember, but this is a special case! The infinitive of the verb is verwachten (to expect). If you remove the -en to find the base stem, you are left with verwacht. The t is already part of the stem itself, so there is no extra -t to drop.
Why do we use geen instead of niet to say "does not expect"?
In Dutch, when you want to negate a noun that would normally have "a" or "an" in front of it, you use geen instead of niet. Because you are saying you do not expect a tip (een fooi), the negative "not a" becomes geen fooi.
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