Breakdown of Als je faalt, gaat het alarm over één minuut af.
één
one
over
past, in (time)
de minuut
the minute
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
als
if / when (condition)
het alarm
the alarm
falen
to fail (in general, to not succeed)
afgaan
to go off (alarm/timer)
Questions & Answers about Als je faalt, gaat het alarm over één minuut af.
Why is over used here instead of in or binnen to mean "in one minute"?
In Dutch, when you want to state that an event will happen at a specific point in the future relative to now (meaning "one minute from now"), you must use over. If you used binnen één minuut, it would mean "within the next minute" (a deadline limit). If you used in één minuut, it would mean the alarm takes a full minute of duration to complete the act of going off, which doesn't make sense here.
Why is the word order gaat het alarm instead of het alarm gaat?
This is due to the V2 (verb-second) rule. The sentence begins with a subordinate clause (Als je faalt,), which acts as the first "block" of information in the main sentence. Therefore, the verb of the main clause (gaat) must come immediately after the comma to take the second position, and the subject (het alarm) gets pushed after it. This is known as inversion.
Where does the af at the end of the sentence come from?
It is part of the separable verb afgaan (to go off / to sound). In a standard main clause, the conjugated part of the verb (gaat) takes the second position, while the prefix (af) gets sent all the way to the end of the sentence.
Why does één have accent marks on it?
The accents indicate that this is the number one (één) rather than the indefinite article "a" (een). While both make sense grammatically ("in one minute" vs "in a minute"), the accents show emphasis on the exact quantity and tell you to pronounce it with a long 'ay' sound rather than a short 'uh' sound (schwa).
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