Questions & Answers about Het gevecht bij het schild duurde lang.
Why use the preposition bij instead of aan or op to translate "at" here?
In Dutch, bij is used to indicate proximity or location near an object (meaning "near" or "by"). If you used aan, it would imply the fight happened while physically attached to or touching the shield. Op would mean the fight took place on top of the shield.
The word schild means "shield". Are there any common expressions using this word that I should know?
The verb duurde translates to "lasted". How does this differ from volhouden?
Duren (past tense: duurde) simply means "to last" or "to take a certain amount of time." It neutrally describes the duration of an event. Volhouden, on the other hand, means "to endure," "to keep up," or "to persevere" through a difficult situation.
Could I use langdurig instead of lang in this sentence?
Not directly with the verb. You could say Het was een langdurig gevecht (It was a lengthy fight), where langdurig is an adjective describing the noun. But when describing how long an action took with the verb duren, you always use the adverb lang (Het duurde lang).
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