Breakdown of Men vindt het onbeschoft als je niet luistert.
niet
not
luisteren
to listen
het
it
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
Questions & Answers about Men vindt het onbeschoft als je niet luistert.
Since men translates to 'people', why does it use the singular verb form vindt instead of the plural vinden?
Grammatically, men acts exactly like a third-person singular pronoun, just like hij, zij, or het. Even though it refers to people in a general sense, the verb always takes the singular form. That is why we use vindt instead of vinden.
This sentence uses men at the beginning, but je later on. Why?
Both men (one/people) and je (you/people) can be used to talk about people in general. Men is formal and mostly used in writing or polite speech, whereas je is casual and common in everyday spoken Dutch. Sometimes native speakers mix them in a single sentence like this, though in strict formal writing, you would use men in both places.
Why is the verb luistert pushed to the very end of the sentence?
The word als (meaning 'when' or 'if') is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause. In Dutch dependent clauses, the conjugated verb is always pushed to the very end of the phrase.
Is vinden the only way to say 'people think' here?