Word
Wij moeten de timer binnen tien minuten deactiveren.
Meaning
We must deactivate the timer within ten minutes.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Wij moeten de timer binnen tien minuten deactiveren.
wij
we
tien
ten
de minuut
the minute
moeten
to have to, must
Questions & Answers about Wij moeten de timer binnen tien minuten deactiveren.
Why use binnen here instead of in?
The preposition binnen sets a deadline limit, meaning the action must happen before ten minutes are up. If you used in, as in in tien minuten, it implies the action requires a continuous duration of ten minutes to complete. So binnen tien minuten means you have a ten-minute window to do it, while in tien minuten means the deactivation process itself takes ten minutes.
What would it mean if we used over instead of binnen here?
The preposition over points to a specific moment in the future. If you said over tien minuten, it would mean we must deactivate the timer exactly ten minutes from now, rather than having a ten-minute window to act.
Why is the verb deactiveren placed at the very end of the sentence?
This is a classic Dutch word order rule for modal verbs. Because moeten (must) is the conjugated verb in the second position, it pushes the main action verb deactiveren to the very end of the clause as an infinitive.
Why does the English loanword timer take the article de?
The vast majority of English loanwords in Dutch are de words. You generally only use het for English loanwords if the direct Dutch equivalent is also a het word, or if you are using the diminutive form.