Breakdown of Over vier uur komen de kleinkinderen en gaan we oppassen.
en
and
vier
four
komen
to come
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
Questions & Answers about Over vier uur komen de kleinkinderen en gaan we oppassen.
Why does the sentence use over instead of in to say 'in four hours'?
When talking about the future and saying something will happen an amount of time from now, Dutch uses over. If you used in vier uur, it would mean it takes four hours to complete an action, rather than waiting four hours for it to start.
Why isn't the plural form uren used after vier?
Certain measurements of time, such as uur (hour), kwartier (quarter of an hour), and jaar (year), stay singular when they follow a number. However, some time words do become plural, like weken (weeks) or maanden (months).
Why are the subject and verb swapped to make komen de kleinkinderen?
This is because of inversion. In a Dutch main clause, the verb must be in the second position. Since the time phrase Over vier uur takes up the first position, the verb komen must come next, pushing the subject de kleinkinderen to the third spot.
Why does the second half of the sentence also use inversion (gaan we) instead of standard word order (we gaan)?
The word en joins the two halves of the sentence, and both halves share the opening time phrase. You can think of it as 'Over vier uur komen de kleinkinderen en [over vier uur] gaan we oppassen.' Because the second half implicitly relies on that same time phrase, it keeps the inverted word order.