Today we are going to look at prepositions related to time. Prepositions link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence.
For example: The book is on the table.
The preposition on tells you where the book is located. It links the book with the table. Prepositions of time give you information about when something happened/happens. I have included a vocabulary list below of the most common time related prepositions. How many do you know and use?
Vocabulary List
- geleden (ago)
- rond (around)
- tussen (between)
- na (after)
- tegen (just before)
- van-tot (from-till)
- om (at), op (on)
- tijdens (during)
- vanaf (beginning at)
- over (in)
- tot (until)
- voor (before)
Let’s take a look at those prepositions in action. Below you will find a short mini-story that contains the above prepositions. See if you can understand the story before looking at the translation, which is provided further below.
Mini-Story
Jaap is twee uur geleden van werk thuisgekomen. Vanaf vandaag heeft hij elke dinsdag nederlandse lessen. Jaap studeert twee uur voor de les. Tijdens de les maakt hij notities. Tussen de lessen belt hij met zijn moeder. Na de les drinkt hij een cola. Om zes uur gaat hij naar huis. Rond zeven uur eet hij stampot met rookworst. Tegen negen uur zet hij de televisie aan. Over een paar minuten begint het journaal. Het journaal duurt tot twintig over negen. Jaap kijkt van negen tot tien televisie.
Translation
Jaap came home from work two hours ago. Beginning today, he has Dutch classes every Tuesday. Jaap studies for two hours before class. During class, he takes notes. Between classes, he calls his mother. After class, he drinks a cola. He goes home at six. He eats ‘stampot’ with smoked sausage around seven. He turns the TV on just before nine. The news will begin in a few minutes. The news lasts until twenty past nine. Jaap watches TV from nine until ten.
How did you get on? Hopefully you understood all or parts of the story.
Practise:
Try creating your own mini-story, using as many of the vocabulary words that you can. You can post your story on the Facebook Transparent Language Dutch page or here in the comments.
Answers from Tuesday’s Post (March 15th – Spelling in Dutch: Part Two):
1. zoon –> zonen
2. pit –> pitten
3. bloem –> bloemen
4. huis –> huizen
5. raaf –-> raven
