Breakdown of Volgens mijn schatting gaat het een uur of vijf duren.
een
a/an
vijf
five
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
mijn
my
het
it
het uur
hour / o'clock
duren
to last / to take time
of
or
volgens
according to
de schatting
the estimate
Questions & Answers about Volgens mijn schatting gaat het een uur of vijf duren.
How does "een uur of vijf" mean "about five hours"?
The structure een [unit] of [number] is a very common Dutch way to estimate amounts. While it literally looks like "an hour or five", it functions as a set phrase meaning "approximately five hours".
Why isn't the plural uren used here since it refers to five hours?
In Dutch, standard units of measurement like time, weight, and distance (such as uur, jaar, kilo, meter) typically stay in the singular form when they are used with a specific number or an estimated quantity like in this structure.
Why is the word order gaat het instead of het gaat?
This is a classic case of inversion. Because the sentence starts with the phrase Volgens mijn schatting (According to my estimate), the conjugated verb gaat must take the second position in the sentence, pushing the subject het immediately after it.
Could I just use the word ongeveer to say "about"?
Absolutely! You could perfectly well say gaat het ongeveer vijf uur duren. However, mastering the een... of... structure is crucial at this level because native speakers use it constantly in everyday conversational estimates.
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