Breakdown of De freelancer bepaalt het tarief en betaalt zichzelf meer.
en
and
betalen
to pay
meer
more
de freelancer
the freelancer
zichzelf
himself / herself / themselves (emphatic)
bepalen
to determine / to decide (to establish, fix)
het tarief
the rate
Questions & Answers about De freelancer bepaalt het tarief en betaalt zichzelf meer.
Why do we use zichzelf here instead of just zich?
Because betalen (to pay) is not a naturally reflexive verb. Usually, you pay someone else. When you direct an action like this back onto the subject, you use the emphatic -zelf form to clearly show the contrast: he is paying himself, not another person.
bepaalt and betaalt look and sound very similar. Are they related?
They aren't related, but they do make this sentence fun to say! Bepaalt comes from bepalen (to determine), and betaalt comes from betalen (to pay). Both start with the unstressed prefix be-, meaning you put the emphasis on the second syllable for both words.
Why isn't there a pronoun after en? Shouldn't it be '...en hij betaalt zichzelf meer'?
You could add hij, but you don't have to. Just like in English, if two actions are performed by the exact same subject and are connected by en (and) or maar (but), you can drop the subject in the second half of the sentence.
Does tarief mean 'tariff' like an import tax?
It can, but in everyday Dutch, het tarief is much more common as the word for a service 'rate' or 'fee'. For example, a freelancer will usually have an uurtarief (hourly rate).
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