Word
De tand des tijds heeft het decreet beschadigd.
Meaning
The ravages of time have damaged the decree.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De tand des tijds heeft het decreet beschadigd.
hebben
to have
de tijd
the time
de tand
the tooth
beschadigen
to damage
Questions & Answers about De tand des tijds heeft het decreet beschadigd.
Why does it say des tijds instead of van de tijd?
This is a fixed expression using the old Dutch genitive (possessive) case, which survives mainly in idioms and formal phrases. des tijds translates literally to "of the time". In modern standard Dutch, you would normally say van de tijd, but you cannot change the grammar inside a traditional idiom like de tand des tijds.
What does de tand des tijds literally mean?
It literally means "the tooth of time". It is the standard Dutch equivalent to the English idiom "the ravages of time", evoking the image of time slowly biting into or gnawing away at something over the years.
Why is there an -s at the end of tijds?
In the old genitive case, masculine and neuter nouns were given an -s ending, very much like the English possessive 's. Because tijd is a masculine noun, its genitive form becomes des tijds. You will also recognize this relic -s in time expressions like 's ochtends, which is short for des ochtends (of the morning).
Why doesn't the past participle beschadigd start with ge-?