Question 1

Why does geleden come after tien jaar?

Accepted Answer

geleden translates to "ago", and in Dutch, it works exactly like it does in English. It is a time postposition, meaning it is placed immediately after the duration or time period you are talking about. So, "ten years" (tien jaar) comes first, followed by geleden.

Question 2

Since it was ten years, why is it tien jaar and not the plural tien jaren?

Accepted Answer

In Dutch, nouns that express a measurement (like time, distance, or weight) usually remain in the singular form when they come after a number. So words like jaar (year), uur (hour), and kilo (kilogram) stay singular: tien jaar. A notable exception to this rule is maand (month), which does take the plural form: tien maanden.

Question 3

Is las the past tense of lezen?

Accepted Answer

Yes. lezen (to read) is an irregular (strong) verb in Dutch. Its singular past tense is las. Because the sentence describes a habit or action that happened ten years ago, we must use the past tense here rather than the present tense lees. Note that in English, "read" is spelled the same in both tenses, but Dutch makes a clear distinction.

Question 4

Can I put the time phrase tien jaar geleden at the very beginning of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely! You can start with the time phrase if you want to place more emphasis on when it happened. Just remember the strict "verb second" rule in Dutch. If you move the time phrase to the front, the verb (las) must immediately follow it, causing the subject (ik) to swap places with the verb: Tien jaar geleden las ik veel over geschiedenis.

Ik las tien jaar geleden veel over geschiedenis.

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