Breakdown of Laat jij je nagels lakken voordat je weggaat?
jij
you
weggaan
to leave / to go away (casual, from a place)
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
je
your (unstressed)
Questions & Answers about Laat jij je nagels lakken voordat je weggaat?
How does the verb laten change the meaning here?
Laten is used here as a causative verb, which means you are causing an action to happen rather than doing it yourself. Instead of painting your own nails (Lak jij je nagels?), you are having someone else do it for you (Laat jij je nagels lakken?). This works just like saying "to have something done" in English.
Why is lakken placed after je nagels instead of right next to laat?
In Dutch, when you have a main conjugated verb (laat) and a full infinitive verb (lakken), they split up. The conjugated verb goes at the beginning because this is a yes/no question, and the infinitive gets pushed to the end of that clause. The object receiving the action (je nagels) is sandwiched between them.
Why does the sentence use jij first, but then je later on?
Jij is the stressed form of "you", and je is the unstressed form. The speaker is putting a little emphasis on the person being asked in the first part: "Are you having your nails done?". Later, je is just used as an unstressed possessive word (je nagels = your nails) and an unstressed subject (je weggaat = you leave) where no extra emphasis is needed.
Why is weggaat pushed to the very end of the sentence and written as one word?