Word
Ik neem om de twee uur tien druppels; desondanks blijft de pijn.
Meaning
I take ten drops every two hours; nevertheless the pain remains.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ik neem om de twee uur tien druppels; desondanks blijft de pijn.
ik
I
twee
two
tien
ten
nemen
to take (general, abstract, e.g., transport, medicine)
Questions & Answers about Ik neem om de twee uur tien druppels; desondanks blijft de pijn.
How does om de work here, and could I just use elke instead?
Om de is used to express intervals, meaning "every" in the sense of a recurring gap (like "every two hours" or "every third day"). While you might occasionally hear elke twee uur in casual speech, om de is the standard and most natural way to express this kind of frequency in Dutch.
Why is it twee uur instead of the plural twee uren?
In Dutch, specific units of time, weight, and measure usually remain in the singular form when they follow a number. This happens with words like uur (hour), jaar (year), and kilo (kilogram). Therefore, you say twee uur.
What exactly does desondanks mean?
It is an adverb meaning "nevertheless" or "despite that." It is formed from the preposition ondanks (despite) combined with an old genitive form des (of that). You use it to connect two thoughts where the second happens despite the first.
Why is the word order blijft de pijn rather than de pijn blijft?