Breakdown of In onze samenleving is het gebruikelijk om elkaar de hand te schudden.
zijn
to be
in
in
onze
our (de-words, plurals)
het
it
elkaar
each other
de hand
the hand
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
de samenleving
the society
gebruikelijk
customary / usual
schudden
to shake
Questions & Answers about In onze samenleving is het gebruikelijk om elkaar de hand te schudden.
The current lesson is about the pronoun men. How could I rewrite this sentence to use men?
Why does the Dutch sentence say de hand (the hand, singular) instead of plural like the English translation shake hands?
In Dutch, the standard expression is iemand de hand schudden (to shake someone's hand). Even though two people are involved and two hands are touching, the idiom uses the singular de hand, focusing on the single hand that each person extends.
Why is elkaar used here?
Elkaar means each other. In English, you just say shake hands, but Dutch specifies who is receiving the action. The phrase literally translates to shaking each other the hand. It is the most natural way to describe this mutual greeting in Dutch.
Why do we need om and te in this sentence?
The structure om ... te plus a whole verb (the infinitive) is used to link an action to a description. Here, it links the description het is gebruikelijk (it is customary) to the action itself. You will often see this pattern after phrases describing an opinion or a state, such as it is important to or it is difficult to.
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