Breakdown of Laat je je haar in de salon knippen?
in
in
het haar
the hair
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
je
your (unstressed)
knippen
to cut (with scissors)
laten
to have (something) done
de salon
the salon
Questions & Answers about Laat je je haar in de salon knippen?
Why does this sentence use Laat, and why is it translated as "have" instead of "let"?
In Dutch, laten is often used as a causative verb, meaning you arrange for someone else to do an action for you. While English says to "have" something done (like having your hair cut), Dutch expresses this using laten + the bare infinitive (knippen).
Why are there two je's right next to each other (Laat je je...)?
They look identical, but they do entirely different jobs here! The first je is the subject pronoun meaning "you". The second je is the possessive pronoun meaning "your", which attaches to haar to mean "your hair".
Why is the verb knippen at the very end of the sentence?
When you use laten with another verb, the second verb stays in its full dictionary form (the infinitive) and gets pushed to the very end of the clause. The main verb (Laat) takes the first position because this is a yes/no question.
Since this is a question where the verb comes before je, shouldn't the verb drop its -t?
It actually follows the rule perfectly! When jij or je comes right after the verb, you use the verb stem and drop the extra -t. However, the stem of laten is laat. Because the stem itself already ends in a -t, it looks exactly the same.
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