Tijdens het overleg zijn wij erin geslaagd om de taakverdeling duidelijk te bespreken.

Tijdens het overleg means during the meeting / during the consultation.

• tijdens = during
• het overleg = the meeting, the consultation, the discussion

Dutch very often puts a time phrase at the beginning of a sentence. It sets the scene first, much like English During the meeting, ....

Also note that overleg is a het-word, so it is het overleg, not de overleg.

This is because Dutch main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

The first slot in the sentence is taken by Tijdens het overleg. Once that happens, the finite verb must come next:

• Tijdens het overleg
  • zijn
    • wij
      • ...

If the sentence started with the subject, then you would get:

• Wij zijn erin geslaagd om de taakverdeling duidelijk te bespreken.

So zijn wij here is normal Dutch word order, not a question word order.

This sentence is in the perfect tense:

• zijn ... geslaagd

The verb slagen in the meaning to succeed normally takes zijn as its auxiliary, not hebben.

So:

• wij zijn geslaagd = we succeeded
• not wij hebben geslaagd

This is something you mostly just learn with the verb. Many Dutch verbs of change of state or result use zijn, and slagen in this sense is one of them.

Here, geslaagd comes from slagen, and in this sentence it means succeeded.

But slagen has more than one common use:

• slagen voor een examen = to pass an exam
• erin slagen iets te doen = to succeed in doing something

So in this sentence, it does not mean passed. It means managed / succeeded.

Erin is made up of:

• er
  • in

This is a very common Dutch structure called a pronominal adverb.

The expression is:

• ergens in slagen = to succeed in something
• erin slagen = to succeed in it / to succeed in doing it

In this sentence, erin points forward to the action that follows:

• om de taakverdeling duidelijk te bespreken

So the idea is: we succeeded in discussing the division of tasks clearly.

Important: in this meaning, you normally need the in idea. You do not usually say simply wij zijn geslaagd om ....

Because er and in combine into the fixed form erin when they stay together.

Similar forms are:

• daarin = in that
• hierin = in this
• waarin = in what / in which

When the parts get separated in a sentence, you may also see them split, but when they stay together, Dutch writes them as one word: erin.

This introduces an infinitive clause.

• bespreken = to discuss
• te bespreken = to discuss
• om ... te bespreken = to discuss / in order to discuss / the action of discussing

After expressions like erin slagen, Dutch often uses an infinitive construction to say what someone succeeded in doing.

So:

• erin geslaagd om de taakverdeling duidelijk te bespreken

means:

• succeeded in discussing the task division clearly

Also, te is the key marker of the infinitive here. In many cases, Dutch can also use this type of construction without om, especially in more compact style. So learners may also encounter:

• erin geslaagd de taakverdeling duidelijk te bespreken

Both patterns can occur.

Because Dutch usually sends the infinitive verb to the end of the infinitive clause.

So in:

• om de taakverdeling duidelijk te bespreken

the order is:

• om
  • object + adverb + te
    • infinitive

This is very normal Dutch structure.

Compare:

• om het probleem snel op te lossen
• om de planning beter te organiseren

In English, the verb comes earlier. In Dutch, it often waits until the end.

Taakverdeling is a compound noun:

• taak = task
• verdeling = division / distribution

So taakverdeling means division of tasks, allocation of tasks, or who does what.

It is a de-word because the main part of the compound is verdeling, and verdeling is a de-word. In Dutch compounds, the grammatical gender/article usually comes from the final part of the word.

So:

• de verdeling
• de taakverdeling

Here, duidelijk works as an adverb. It describes how the task division was discussed.

So:

• de taakverdeling duidelijk bespreken = to discuss the task division clearly

It is not describing the noun taakverdeling directly. If it were an adjective directly modifying the noun, you would expect something like:

• de duidelijke taakverdeling = the clear task division

But here the meaning is about the discussion being clear, or about making the task division clear through discussion.

Both wij and we mean we.

The difference is mostly one of style and emphasis:

• we = more common in everyday speech
• wij = slightly fuller, sometimes more formal, sometimes more emphatic

So this sentence could also very naturally be:

• Tijdens het overleg zijn we erin geslaagd om de taakverdeling duidelijk te bespreken.

That would sound a bit more conversational.

They are related, but they are not the same thing.

• overleg is a noun: a meeting, consultation, discussion session
• bespreken is a verb: to discuss something

So the sentence means that during the meeting, we managed to discuss a specific topic, namely the division of tasks.

You can think of it like this:

• het overleg = the setting
• bespreken = the action that happened in that setting

Not very naturally. A word-for-word version would be something like:

• During the meeting are we therein succeeded to discuss the task division clearly.

That is not good English, but it helps show the structure.

A more natural English equivalent would be:

• During the meeting, we managed to discuss the division of tasks clearly.
• During the meeting, we succeeded in clearly discussing the task allocation.

So the Dutch structure is normal Dutch, even though it does not map neatly onto English word for word.