Questions & Answers about Het is best moeilijk om op wat borden af te dingen.
I thought wat was used for uncountable things. Why is it used with the plural noun borden?
You are right that wat often means 'some' with uncountable nouns (like wat water). However, it is also perfectly normal in Dutch to use wat with plural countable nouns. In that case, it means 'a few' or 'some'. Here, wat borden simply means 'a few plates'.
Does best mean 'best' in this sentence?
Not here! When best is used as an adverb before an adjective like moeilijk, it means 'quite', 'pretty', or 'fairly'. So best moeilijk translates to 'quite difficult'.
Why is te squeezed inside the verb as af te dingen?
The verb for 'to haggle' is afdingen, which is a separable verb (af + dingen). When a separable verb is used with te (like in this om ... te structure), the te always goes between the separable prefix and the core verb, written as three separate words.
Why do we use the preposition op here?
The verb afdingen requires the fixed preposition op when you specify what you are haggling over. You always use afdingen op (to haggle on or bargain over) an item or a price.