Breakdown of De schade aan de schepen is te wijten aan steeds grotere slordigheid en nalatigheid.
zijn
to be
en
and
groot
big
aan
on / at (attached to, edge)
Questions & Answers about De schade aan de schepen is te wijten aan steeds grotere slordigheid en nalatigheid.
How does is te wijten aan differ from is te danken aan in this sentence?
Is te wijten aan is used to attribute a negative cause, similar to "is to blame on" or "is due to" in a bad sense. Because this sentence is about schade (damage) caused by carelessness, we use wijten. If the outcome were positive, you would use is te danken aan (is thanks to).
How does the combination steeds grotere translate to "increasingly greater"?
In Dutch, placing the word steeds before a comparative adjective (like grotere) means that the quality is continuously increasing over time. You can translate this pattern as "increasingly greater" or "greater and greater".
Why does the adjective grotere have an -e ending here?
It modifies the nouns slordigheid and nalatigheid. All Dutch nouns ending in the suffix -heid are de words. When an adjective comes before a de word, it gets the standard -e ending, even when there is no article placed in front of it.
Why is the preposition aan used twice in this sentence?