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Questions & Answers about Dag mevrouw, tot ziens!
I thought dag meant "day" or "hello". Can it also mean "bye"?
Yes! Dag literally means "day", but Dutch speakers use it all the time as a friendly, everyday way to say both "hello" and "goodbye". Here, because it is paired with tot ziens, it clearly means "bye".
Is it normal to just say mevrouw on its own without a last name?
Yes, it is very common and polite in Dutch to address an adult woman simply as mevrouw (madam or ma'am). You do not need to add her last name.
What does tot ziens literally mean?
Tot means "until" and ziens comes from the verb zien (to see). The phrase literally translates to something like "until seeing (again)" and is the standard Dutch way to say "goodbye".
Why is there an "s" at the end of ziens instead of just using the verb zien?
The "s" is a leftover from an old Dutch grammar rule that is no longer actively used. You do not need to worry about the grammar behind it; just memorize tot ziens as a fixed phrase.