Breakdown of Tijdens de operatie geeft de arts om de vijf minuten een druppel.
een
a/an
de arts
the doctor
vijf
five
de minuut
minute
geven
to give
tijdens
during
de operatie
operation / surgery
om de
every (at intervals)
de druppel
the drop
Questions & Answers about Tijdens de operatie geeft de arts om de vijf minuten een druppel.
How does om de work in this sentence to mean 'every'?
The phrase om de followed by a number and a plural noun expresses how often something happens. Here, om de vijf minuten translates to 'every five minutes'. You can use this exact pattern for other time periods, such as om de twee weken ('every two weeks').
Can I just say elke vijf minuten instead?
No, that sounds unnatural in Dutch. The word elke ('every' or 'each') is used with singular nouns, like elke minuut ('every minute'). When you specify a number greater than one, you have to use the phrase om de, as in om de vijf minuten.
Why is the verb geeft placed before the subject de arts?
This is a great refresher for the V2 (verb-second) rule. Because the sentence starts with the prepositional phrase Tijdens de operatie ('During the operation'), the verb geeft must take the strict second position. This forces the subject de arts to move right after the verb.
Is the article always de in this frequency structure?
Almost always, because this structure usually involves a plural noun like minuten, and all plural nouns in Dutch take de. A notable exception is when you mean 'every other' of a singular noun, where the article must match the word. For example, om het jaar means 'every other year' because jaar is a het word.
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