De teamafspraak bepaalt de responstijd.

Because Dutch usually writes compound nouns as a single word.

• team = team
• afspraak = agreement, arrangement, appointment

So teamafspraak literally means something like team agreement or agreement within the team.

This is very common in Dutch:

• huis
  • deur → huisdeur
• werk
  • tijd → werktijd
• team
  • afspraak → teamafspraak

English often uses separate words where Dutch uses one compound word.

Not in this sentence. Afspraak can mean different things depending on context:

• appointment: a scheduled meeting
• agreement: something people have agreed on
• rule/convention: an arrangement people follow

In de teamafspraak bepaalt de responstijd, it means agreement or rule, not a calendar appointment.

Both nouns are de words because their main noun is a de word.

For compounds in Dutch, the grammatical gender usually comes from the last part of the compound:

• teamafspraak → main word is afspraak → de afspraak
• responstijd → main word is tijd → de tijd

So:

• de teamafspraak
• de responstijd

This is a useful rule for Dutch compounds.

Bepalen is the infinitive, meaning to determine.

In this sentence, the subject is de teamafspraak, which is singular, so Dutch uses the third-person singular present form:

• infinitive: bepalen
• stem: bepaal
• singular present: bepaalt

So:

• ik bepaal
• jij bepaalt
• hij/zij/het bepaalt
• de teamafspraak bepaalt

Because de teamafspraak is singular, bepaalt is correct.

Yes. This is a very standard main-clause pattern:

De teamafspraak | bepaalt | de responstijd
subject | verb | object

Dutch main clauses usually put the finite verb in second position. Here, the subject comes first, so the sentence looks very similar to English.

If another element came first, the verb would still stay in second position:

• Volgens de teamafspraak bepaalt het systeem de responstijd.

So the sentence you have is straightforward and normal.

Yes, responstijd is a normal compound noun, especially in business, customer service, and IT contexts.

It is made up of:

• respons
• tijd

It means response time.

Dutch also often creates this kind of technical or professional vocabulary with compounds. In some contexts, you might also see other related words, but responstijd is perfectly natural here.

Yes. Bepalen can have several close English translations, depending on context:

• determine
• decide
• define
• set

In your sentence, determines or sets both fit well:

• The team agreement determines the response time
• The team agreement sets the response time

So if you see bepalen elsewhere, do not assume it always has only one exact English translation.

Dutch often prefers a compound noun instead of a longer phrase.

So instead of:

• de afspraak van het team

Dutch very naturally says:

• de teamafspraak

Both can be understandable, but the compound is shorter and more idiomatic in many contexts. This is one of the biggest differences from English: Dutch likes to pack information into one noun.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• teamafspraak → TAYM-ahf-spraak
• responstijd → reh-SPONS-tite (with tijd sounding a bit like English tide, but not exactly)

A few notes:

• aa in afspraak is a long a
• ij in tijd is a Dutch diphthong, often roughly approximated by English eye or tide
• Stress is usually strong on the main part of the compound, especially the first element in natural speech, though compounds can have secondary stress too

If you want to sound natural, it helps to learn the whole compound as one rhythm unit rather than saying each part separately.