Breakdown of Zij zagen foto's van elkaar en ze besloten te swipen.
en
and
zij
they
zien
to see
de foto
the photo
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
elkaar
each other
te
to (infinitive marker)
swipen
to swipe
besluiten te
to decide to
Questions & Answers about Zij zagen foto's van elkaar en ze besloten te swipen.
Why is it van elkaar instead of just translating "each other's photos" as elkaars foto's?
You actually can say elkaars foto's (each other's photos), which uses the possessive form of elkaar. However, using foto's van elkaar (photos of each other) is just as common and sounds very natural. This lesson focuses on combining prepositions like van (of) with elkaar, which translates perfectly to "of each other" in English.
Why does the sentence start with Zij but later use ze for "they"?
Both mean "they". Zij is the stressed form, used at the beginning to clearly establish who we are talking about. Later in the sentence, the unstressed form ze is used because the emphasis is now on the action (besloten) rather than the people, and we already know who the subject is.
Why does foto's have an apostrophe for the plural?
In Dutch, nouns ending in a single open vowel (like -a, -i, -o, -u, or -y) get an apostrophe plus 's' in the plural to keep the vowel sounding long. If you just wrote "fotos", the spelling rules would make that 'o' sound like a short vowel.
Is swipen a real Dutch verb?
Yes, Dutch adopts many modern English tech words and treats them as regular Dutch verbs. Here the infinitive swipen (to swipe) is used with te because it follows the verb besluiten (to decide), just like "decided to swipe" in English. Fun fact: the past tense is swipede and the past participle is geswipet.
What is the function of te before swipen?
In Dutch, when you have a main verb like besluiten (to decide) followed by another action, you often link them with te before the infinitive of the second verb. It works exactly like the "to" in the English phrase "decided to swipe".
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