Breakdown of Tijdens het college zijn veel studenten aan het typen, maar een paar zijn duidelijk afgeleid door hun scherm, en hun schermtijd is al erg hoog.
Questions & Answers about Tijdens het college zijn veel studenten aan het typen, maar een paar zijn duidelijk afgeleid door hun scherm, en hun schermtijd is al erg hoog.
No. College in Dutch is a false friend.
- het college here means a lecture / class at a university or college.
- It usually refers to a specific teaching session: een hoorcollege (a lecture) or een werkcollege (a seminar/tutorial).
It does not usually mean “college” as in “institution of higher education” (the place). For that, Dutch more often uses universiteit, hogeschool, or opleiding, depending on the context.
So tijdens het college ≈ “during the lecture / during class,” not “during the college.”
Both word orders exist in Dutch, but they are used in different positions in the sentence.
Dutch is a V2 language: in a main clause, the finite verb must be in second position, no matter what comes first.
The basic order is: Subject – Verb – …
→ Veel studenten zijn aan het typen.
“Many students are typing.”If you move something else to the front (here: Tijdens het college), the verb still has to stay in second position, so it jumps in front of the subject:
→ Tijdens het college zijn veel studenten aan het typen.
So:
- Tijdens het college = first element
- zijn = second element (finite verb)
- veel studenten = subject, which now comes after the verb.
This inversion is normal and very frequent in Dutch.
Aan het + infinitive is a common way to express a progressive / ongoing action, similar to English “be + -ing”.
Veel studenten typen.
= “Many students type” (general / habitual, or just a simple present statement)Veel studenten zijn aan het typen.
= “Many students are typing (right now).”
So zijn aan het typen highlights that the action is in progress at this moment. Without aan het, Dutch present tense can be either general or present progressive depending on context, but aan het + infinitive makes the “ongoing right now” meaning very explicit.
You can use this pattern with many verbs:
- Ik ben aan het lezen. – I am reading.
- We zijn aan het koken. – We are cooking.
Here, maar means “only”, not “but” in the contrastive sense.
- maar een paar ≈ only a few.
In the sentence:
- … zijn veel studenten aan het typen, maar een paar zijn duidelijk afgeleid …
The maar before een paar is part of the phrase maar een paar = only a few. The maar that connects the two clauses (“but”) is the first one, before een paar:
- …, maar een paar zijn duidelijk afgeleid …
= “… but a few are clearly distracted …”
So:
- First maar = conjunction “but”.
- Inside maar een paar, maar = “only”.
Grammatically, een paar is treated as referring to multiple people/things, so it normally takes a plural verb.
- Een paar studenten zijn afwezig. – A few students are absent.
- Een paar boeken liggen op tafel. – A few books are on the table.
Even though paar itself looks singular, the meaning is plural, and Dutch reflects that in verb agreement. So:
- Een paar zijn duidelijk afgeleid.
= “A few (of them) are clearly distracted.”
If you explicitly say een paar studenten, the verb is also plural:
- Een paar studenten zijn duidelijk afgeleid.
In ze zijn duidelijk afgeleid, afgeleid is a past participle used as an adjective, describing a state: “they are (in a) distracted (state).”
- afleiden = to distract
- afgeleid = distracted (past participle, used adjectivally)
So:
- Ze zijn afgeleid.
Literally: “They are distracted.” (state/result)
You can compare with English:
- They are tired. (from “to tire”)
- Ze zijn afgeleid. (from afleiden)
If you want to emphasize the process of becoming distracted (rather than the resulting state), you could use worden:
- Ze worden afgeleid door hun scherm.
= “They are being distracted by their screen.” (more dynamic)
In the given sentence, the focus is on their current state: they are clearly distracted now.
Dutch very often uses a distributive singular: a singular noun that is understood as “each has one.” English does this too sometimes (“They raised their hand”).
- door hun scherm = “by their screen” (each student has their own screen)
- It does not mean they all share one single screen; the context makes it distributive.
Both forms are possible:
- door hun scherm – natural and common.
- door hun schermen – also correct; it explicitly highlights the plurality of the screens.
In many everyday contexts, Dutch prefers the singular for body parts, personal items, etc.:
- Ze staken hun hand op. – They raised their hand (each their own).
- Ze poetsten hun tanden. – They brushed their teeth. (plural here, but still distributive.)
So door hun scherm is idiomatic.
In modern standard Dutch, hun is the normal possessive pronoun for “their”:
- hun scherm – their screen
- hun schermtijd – their screen time
So in this sentence:
- hun scherm = the screen belonging to them (the students)
- hun schermtijd = the amount of time they spend on screens.
Be careful that hun also has another function: as an indirect object pronoun (“to them”):
- Ik geef hun het boek. – I give them the book. (here: indirect object)
Traditional grammar says:
- hun = indirect object (“to them”)
- hen = direct object (“them”)
But in everyday Dutch, many people use hun for almost all object cases. As a learner, it’s safest to focus on:
- hun + noun = always possessive “their” (correct)
- hun as an object pronoun = common in speech, but sometimes corrected in formal writing.
Schermtijd is a compound noun:
- scherm = screen
- tijd = time
→ schermtijd = screen time
In Dutch, compound nouns are normally written as one word, not separated:
- schermtijd (not scherm tijd)
- huiswerk (housework / homework)
- smartphoneverslaving (smartphone addiction)
The plural is:
- de schermtijden – the screen times (e.g., different limits or measurements)
But usually you see it in the singular when talking about a person’s amount of screen time:
- Mijn schermtijd is te hoog. – My screen time is too high.
Al here means “already”.
- hun schermtijd is erg hoog – their screen time is very high.
- hun schermtijd is al erg hoog – their screen time is already very high.
Adding al often implies something like:
- this happened sooner than expected, or
- it is surprisingly high at this point.
So the speaker suggests: even now / already now, their screen time is very high (perhaps higher than it should be at this moment).
All three can mean something like “very”, but they differ in tone and strength.
erg hoog
- Very common in spoken and written Dutch.
- Often neutral, sometimes a bit informal.
- Can also mean “bad/serious” in some contexts: erg ziek = very ill / seriously ill.
heel hoog
- Also very common.
- Often slightly more neutral than erg in emotional tone.
- Works with many adjectives: heel groot, heel duur, heel interessant.
zeer hoog
- Sounds more formal or written.
- Often used in official or more serious contexts: zeer belangrijk, zeer gevaarlijk.
In everyday speech, erg hoog and heel hoog are both very natural for “very high.” Zeer hoog is possible, but feels somewhat more formal or emphatic.
The sentence is:
Tijdens het college zijn veel studenten aan het typen, maar een paar zijn duidelijk afgeleid door hun scherm, en hun schermtijd is al erg hoog.
The comma before maar (but) is standard and expected, because maar introduces a new main clause that contrasts with the previous one.
The comma before en (and) is more optional in Dutch.
- Many style guides say: no comma before “en” when it simply joins two main clauses that are closely connected.
- So you could very naturally write:
…, maar een paar zijn duidelijk afgeleid door hun scherm en hun schermtijd is al erg hoog.
Including the comma before en is not strictly wrong, but many Dutch writers would omit it in this case.