"You are a quiet man."
Translation:Je bent een rustige man.
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How come you cannot say "U bent een rustige meneer" if you are trying to be formal?
The 'man' in the sentence is referring to gender, just like it is in English. 'Meneer' is not a formal way of specifying someone's gender, just like mister/sir is not in English.
Hence you can say: U bent een rustige man. But you don't say: U bent een rustige meneer. Just like in English you don't say: You are a quiet mister/sir.
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Please explain further. 'Cause if I 'member correctly, Duo recognizes "meneer" as "gentleman". And while today we don't say "You are a quiet mister/sir", it has been used such at times in the past. Probably colloquially.
At least one of my Grandma's antecedents spoke to her own husband like that; she also, never in her life, ever called him by his vorname. She always addressed him as "Mr.....", and he likewise, or so we were told.
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You could say, We are a quiet man in Science Fiction or philosophy, I suppose.