overtreft

Overtreft is a Dutch verb form meaning to surpass or exceed. It is the present tense, third-person singular form of the verb overtreffen. The base verb overtreffen is formed from the prefix over- and the verb treffen, and it is used to describe surpassing a standard, expectation, or competitor. The term is closely related to the German übertreffen.

In usage, overtref t is common in contexts of comparison, competition, performance, and evaluation. It appears in sports reporting, business analysis, and scientific or statistical discussions when one entity exceeds another or exceeds a benchmark. An example sentence is: Het team overtreft alle verwachtingen (“The team surpasses all expectations”). Another example is a sentence describing results exceeding projections: De cijfers overtreffen de prognoses.

Grammatical notes: The verb overtreffen is conjugated across tenses like other strong Dutch verbs. The present tense forms vary by subject (for example, hij/zij/het overtreft; wij overtreffen). The simple past tense is overtrof, and the past participle is overtroffen, used with have or have been in present perfect constructions (De prestaties hebben de verwachtingen overtroffen). Because of its meaning, overtreffen is often used with direct objects describing what is being surpassed (de verwachtingen, de concurrenten, de records, etc.). As a cognate, it shares roots with related German and other Germanic languages, which use similar constructions to express surpassing or exceeding.