Dutch/Lesson 8

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Beginner level: cycle 2

Lesson 8 ~ Lesson 8

Er en de bijwoordelijke voornaamwoorden ~ Er and the adverbial pronouns

• Koffie zetten

• Grammar: Pronominal replacement

• Grammar: Use of the locative er

Gesprek 8

noicon

Marjo?

Ja, wat is er?

Is er koffie?

Nee ik heb er nog geen .

Nou, dan doe ik dat wel even. Zijn er ?

Ja, in de . Zie je de ? Ze liggen er .

Heb je er een ?

Ja, er zijn er twee.

Vocabulary
de kast		cupboard
de broodtrommel		bread box
vlak		plane, level; right
het pak		pack, package; suit

noicon

stroopwafels^[1]

Translation • Lesson 8 • gesprek 8

Marjo?

Ja, wat is er?

Yes, what is up?

Is er al koffie?

Is there coffee yet?

Nee ik heb er nog geen gezet.

No, I did not make any yet.

Nou, dan doe ik dat wel even. Zijn er zakjes?

OK, then I'll make some. Are there any bags?

Ja, in de kast. Zie je de broodtrommel? Ze liggen er vlak onder.

Yes, in the cupboard. You see the breadbox? They are right underneath.

Heb je er ook nog een pak koekjes bij?

Do you have cookies to go with it?

Ja, er zijn er zelfs twee.

Yes, there are even two packs.

Grammatica 8 ~ Er and the adverbial pronouns

Locative adverbs

The word er is one of the most ubiquitous words in the Dutch language and often rather hard to translate, because it does not have an exact counterpart in most other languages, French being an exception with the words y and en. Compare:

Type	Pronoun	Locative adverb	Pronoun	Locative adverb
	Dutch		English
Personal	noicon het	noicon er	it	??
Demonstrative (close)	noicon dit	noicon hier	this	here
Demonstrative (far)	noicon dat	noicon daar	that	there
Rel./Interrogative	noicon wat	noicon waar	what	where
Indefinite	noicon iets	noicon ergens	something	somewhere
Negative indefinite	noicon niets	noicon nergens	nothing	nowhere
Universal	noicon alles	noicon overal	everything	everywhere

Er relates to more specific indications of place like here, there, where, or somewhere in a similar way as the word it does to the more specific this, that or what. The word is a kind of locative wildcard.

In computer terms you could say that er is *ere, with * being a wildcard for h-,th- or wh-.

Another way of putting it is that er is a clitic (weak) form of hier or daar. Indeed it never carries emphasis. Historically, however, the word only partly originated as a weakening of hier or daar. In part it also reflects an old genitive of the pronoun "het". The two sources have coalesced so strongly that they cannot be distinguished anymore.

In many cases where Dutch uses er, English will resort to a more specific there:

Is er koffie – Is there coffee?

Ken je Londen? Ja, ik ben er geweest. - Do you know London? Yes, I have been there

This is also true in the relatively few cases that English uses words like like thereof, therefore, thereafter etc. Dutch will distinguish a more general (clitic) ervan, ervoor, erna from a more specific (accentuated) daarvan, daarvoor and daarna. In most grammars they are called "pronominal adverbs", because they have a dual nature: they share characteristics of adverbs as well as pronouns. The name is somewhat unfortunate however. Pronouns play a major role in a language's grammar and syntaxis; they are the main course of it. Adverbs are more likes spices added to the course. Added to a sentence they play a minor grammatical role at best. Words like "ervan" etc. however do play a major role in Dutch grammar. It is therefore better to invert the name "pronominal adverbs" and call them "adverbial pronouns" instead.

Adverbial pronouns

In English adverbial pronouns like therein or hereby are a remnant from the past. They are quite old and occur in most Germanic languages, both of the Western and the Northern (Scandinavian) group. However, adverbial pronouns are much more prominent in Dutch than in English or the other Germanic languages. Their formation is still an active mechanism: they are productive. If anything their use is actually increasing (probably due to the gender problem). They form an important part of the grammar and have to be mastered to speak the language properly.

Adverbial pronouns are commonly used in Dutch to replace the combination of preposition + pronoun, particularly if the latter is an inanimate it or them:

of it → thereof = ervan

for it → therefore = ervoor

Notice how the elements swap place: the prepositional part moves to the end. This is true in both languages.

While rare in English, in Dutch this replacement/swap is not just common, in many cases it is mandatory .

Pronominal replacement

In the written language it is considered incorrect, even somewhat disrespectful to apply pronominal replacement to people (animate nouns), but in the spoken language it is already quite common:

after her = na haar (instead of erna)

for them = voor hen (instead of ervoor)

In all other cases pronominal replacement is frequent or even mandatory. It is a major way of avoiding m/f gender references for inanimate nouns, because er is genderless. This means that replacement can also be applied to common gender words that do not really have a personal pronoun to refer them by.

The most common pronominal replacements (from the table above) are:

type	noun	pronoun	pron. adv.
pers.	van het huis	→ (van het)*	noicon → ervan
dem. prox.	van dit huis	→ van dit, van deze	noicon → hiervan
dem. dist.	van dat huis	→ van dat, van die	noicon → daarvan
interrog.	van welk huis	→ (van wat)*, van welk(e)	noicon → waarvan
relat.	van het huis dat..	→ (van hetwelk(e))*	noicon → waarvan
indef.	van een ding	→van iets	→ ergens van
negat.	van geen ding	→van niets	→ nergens van
univers.	van alle dingen	→van alles	→ overal van

(...)*: In this case the replacement is so common that not using the replacement is simply bad Dutch.

Notice that if the replaced pronoun is personal (het), demonstrative (dit, dat) or interrogative/relative (wat) the resulting adverbial pronoun is written as one word (ervan, hiervan, daarvaan, waarvan). In other cases an adverbial expression with two separate adverbs results.

Drill 8-1. Pronominal replacement

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 8 • Pronominal replacement drill

Replacement drill. Replace the following expressions by the correct proniminal adverb. Run the audio to hear the results.

E.g.: "in welk huis?" would be replaced by "waarin?"

in het huis – in the house

op het dak – on the roof

tussen de planten – between the plants

naast een boom – beside a tree

tussen huizen – between houses

onder de deken – under the blanket

in een boom – in a tree

op dat dak – on that roof

in dit huis – in this house

naast deze boom – next to this tree

onder deze daken – under these roofs

voor deze planten – before these plants

achter de boom – behind the tree

achter deze huizen – behind these houses

op die boom – on that tree

naast deze garage – next to that garage

onder dat dak – under that roof

achter een huis – behind a house

achter die boom – behind that tree

in die boeken – in those books

tussen die dekens – between the blankets

in welk huis? - in which house?

naast welke boom? - beside which tree?

voor welke planten – for which plants?

in die garage – in that garage

onder welke dekens? - under which blankets?

naast dat huis – next to that house

op welk dak? - on which roof?

onder een boom – under a tree

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 8 • Pronominal replacement drill

You can do this exercise a number of different ways. This is one:

First work out on paper which adverbial pronoun to expect
Then run the audio to check your results
Make sure you repeat in the pauses
Repeat the drill without looking at the text

Some people may prefer to run the audio without the visual text first. Remember: learning by ear is superior to the visual way. The exercise also introduces/ reinforces some vocabulary. Make a list of the nouns used with their proper definite articles te ensure you memorize their gender.

Translating its by replacement

In English it is common to use the possessive pronoun its to refer to a noun that indicates a thing. In Dutch, an adverbial pronouns like ervan is used instead, again representing a convenient way to avoid the gender issue:

This tale is nice. Its beginning is spectacular.

Deze vertelling is leuk. Het begin ervan is spectaculair. (Yes, please..)

Deze vertelling is leuk. Haar begin is spectaculair. (No, please..)

Yes, in principle the latter is correct. A word in -ing is feminine, but who remembers?^[2] Occasionally a writer will try to dazzle the reader with this kind of superior knowledge, often only to get it wrong... Please use the adverbial ervan, especially if the noun is inanimate. This is true for neuter nouns as well

Dit verhaal is leuk. Het begin ervan is spectaculair (Yes, please..)

Dit verhaal is leuk. Zijn begin is spectaculair. (No, please..)

The latter is strictly speaking correct Dutch, but a neuter (inanimate) possessive zijn is so uncommon that it is better avoided. Possessives like zijn and haar are more and more reserved for animate masculine and animate feminine nouns (person, pets) and indicate natural rather than grammatical gender, just like the personal pronouns hij and zij.

Formation: prepositional adverbs

An adverbial pronoun is formed from the locative adverb that corresponds to the replaced pronoun + the preposition in adverbial form in reverse order.

preposition+pronoun → [locative adverb+prepositional adverb] = Adverbial pronoun.

Usually the adverbial form of the preposition or prepositional adverb is identical to the preposition itself:

(van het)* → ervan

(tussen het)* → ertussen

But this is not always the case:

(met het)* → ermee (arch. ermede)

(tot het)* → ertoe

Adverbial pronouns can be formed from most prepositions. Words like ertussenin (lit. thereinbetween) or ergens achter (lit. somewhere behind: behind something) or nergens onderuit (lit. nowhere from under out) or nergens anders mee (lit. nowhere else with: with nothing else) do not raise any eyebrows in Dutch.

A few prepositional adverbs do not have a corresponding prepositions:

eraf (off of it)

erheen (expresses a direction: to)

Conversely, some prepositions (like via, behalve, sinds etc.) do not have a corresponding prepositional adverb. This makes it difficult to use them in relative clauses or in combination with it. Compare:

Dit is de weg waarlangs ik naar huis fiets.

Dit is de weg via dewelke ik naar huis fiets.

This is the road along which I ride my bike on the way home.

Because via does not have a prepositional adverb one is forced to use a relative pronoun like dewelke that is more and more experienced as awkward and archaic, because in most constructions it is replaced (langs dewelke → waarlangs).

Prepositional adverbs also play a major role in the formation of separable verbs as we shall see in lesson 10.

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 8 • Pronominal replacement

Replace—if possible—the following combinations of preposition + pronoun by the corresponding adverbial pronouns. In some cases the stated combination is not acceptable and its replacement is mandatory

van dit
met dat
in wat?
om alles
tot niets
via dit
buiten het*
langs die
over dewelke
boven het uit*
achter in hetwelk
met niets anders
onder deze
tussen iets
binnen dit
het binnen* (movement)
zonder het*

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 8 • Pronominal replacement

van dit
hiervan
met dat
daarmee
in wat?
waarin?
om alles
overal om
tot niets
nergens toe
via dit
(not replaced, usually avoided)
buiten het*
erbuiten
langs die
daarlangs
over dewelke
waarover
boven het uit*
erbovenuit
achter in hetwelk
waarachterin
met niets anders
nergens anders mee
onder deze
hieronder
tussen iets
ergens tussen
binnen dit
hierbinnen
het binnen* (movement)
ernaarbinnen
zonder het
erzonder

The latter is quite common in the South, still avoided in the North but gaining acceptance: adverbial pronoun are productive in Dutch.

Separation

To further confuse the enemy, adverbial pronouns are usually split apart in the sentence. Compare:

He has a remedy for it.

Hij heeft een remedie *(voor het).
Hij heeft een remedie ervoor.
Hij heeft er een remedie voor.

The first translation is unacceptable. The second one is awkward, the third one is what most people would say.

In the case of the preposition van (of), the van-part may be omitted, giving the word er a partitive flavor:

He has seven of them.

Hij heeft zeven *(van ze).
Hij heeft zeven ervan.
Hij heeft er zeven van.
Hij heeft er zeven.

The four translations are unacceptable, awkward, reasonable and most common respectively.

The partitive flavor extends to the negative:

Is er koffie – Is there coffee?

Ik heb er nog geen (van) gezet – I have there(of) yet none made – I haven't made any yet.

Sometimes the two parts of the adverbial pronoun can end up quite far apart. Notice what happens to "by it" (door *het) => "erdoor":

Lance Armstrong heeft kanker gehad.

Lance Armstrong had cancer.

Hij heeft er , zijn zeven in de Tour de France, als door .

However, given his seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France, he did not in any way allow himself to be thwarted by it in his career as the world's strongest cyclist.

Getting used to understanding such sentences, let alone producing them in speech, takes a lot of practice.

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 8 • Word order diagram

As an exercise: write down both the Dutch and the English sentence and draw arrows to identify all the parts of this sentence to see how different the word order is. (Don't worry: we will deal with word order bit by bit).

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 8 • Word order diagram

The difference in word order

Exercise 8.1

Replace the object by a adverbial pronoun:

e.g. Het boek ligt in de kast → Het boek ligt erin.

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 8 • use of er

Deze wielrenner behaalt een overwinning in de Giro d'Italia
Het is niet eenvoudig in deze wedstrijd een overwinning te behalen
Van welke wedstrijd is hij ook kampioen?
Zij doet in de keuken koffie in het zakje.
Koekjes zijn onder kinderen altijd een groot succes.
Het verschil tussen Amerikaanse en Nederlandse koekjes is niet groot.
Achter geen enkel werkwoord moet je een uitgang -ing schrijven.
Je schrijft altijd een punt boven een i.
Hij ging met de trein naar London.

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 8 • use of er

Deze wielrenner behaalt een overwinning in de Giro d'Italia
Deze wielrenner behaalt er een overwinning in.
Het is niet eenvoudig in deze wedstrijd een overwinning te behalen.
Het is niet eenvoudig hier een overwinning in te behalen.
Van welke wedstrijd is hij ook kampioen?
Waar is hij ook kampioen van?
Zij doet in de keuken koffie in het zakje.
Zij doet er in de keuken koffie in.
Koekjes zijn onder kinderen altijd een groot succes.
Koekjes zijn er altijd een groot succes onder.
Het verschil tussen Amerikaanse en Nederlandse koekjes is niet groot.
Het verschil ertussen is niet groot.

Het verschil is niet groot ertussen.

Het verschil is er niet groot tussen.

Er is niet veel verschil tussen.
Achter geen enkel werkwoord moet je een uitgang -ing schrijven.
Nergens moet je een uitgang -ing achter schrijven.
Je schrijft altijd een punt boven een i.
Je schrijft er altijd een punt boven.
Hij ging met de trein naar London.
Hij ging ermee naar London.

Hij ging er naar London mee.

Remark: Please do not worry too much about the word order at this point. As you can see it is quite irregular and sometimes there are various possibilities. It is one of the hardest aspects of West-Germanic languages (other than English). Unfortunately, for English speakers they lost that after 1066 or so. The preponderance of separable adverbial pronouns in Dutch only acerbates the situation. It is perhaps a consolation that even our German neighbors are baffled by this particular aspect of Dutch grammar-and-syntax.

If you must know: In general the locative part er tends to follow the persoonsvorm -the conjugated part of the verb- whereas the prepositional part (like mee) moves to the end of the sentence. This is true for 1,4,5,8,9. The prepositional part may have to compete with other parts of the verbal expression for a spot as in 2 or 7. In questions or emphatic expressions the locative may precede the persoonsvorm (see 3,7). In 6 the position can be influenced by the verbal noun verschil as ertussen refers to ..difference between..

Exercise 8.2

Translate the above sentences into English in both forms.

Drill 8.2

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 8 • Pronominal replacement with separation. Audio drill

Replace the prepositional expression by a adverbial pronoun. Then make the sentence negative:

E.g.: Ik snij met het mes – ik snij ermee – ik snij er niet mee

(Notice that the adverb separates!)

Ik kijk naar de eenden.
Hij liep achter de wagen.
Hij betaalde met euros.
De kat ligt onder dat bed.
Op welk bed ligt de hond?
Je kunt het aan die lichten zien.
Hij hield de paraplu boven zijn hoofd
De mensen staan op deze brug
De kinderen werken aan dat huiswerk
Hij luistert naar deze opname

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 8 • Pronominal replacement with separation. Audio drill

I look at the ducks
He walked behind the wagon
He paid in euros
The cat is under that bed
On which bed is the dog?
You can see it from those lights
He kept the umbrella over his head
The people are standing on this bridge
The children are working on that homework
He listens to this recording

Other uses of "er"

Impersonal passives and indefinite nouns

Vocabulary
noicon worden	noicon werd	noicon geworden	aux. passive; to become
noicon bakken	noicon bakte	noicon gebakken	to bake
noicon lachen	noicon lachte	noicon gelachen	to laugh

Many Dutch verbs can be used in the passive voice, which we'll discuss in lesson 12 in greater detail. In fact in Dutch the passive voice is more recognizable and more common than in English. It uses the verb worden.

Ik bak het brood – I bake the bread

Het brood wordt door mij gebakken – The bread is baked by me.

Here "het brood" is a definite noun and the passive centers around it as the object.

In more indefinite cases Dutch often uses an impersonal passive initiated with the adverb er.

Er wordt hier brood gebakken – (There is bread baking going on here)

Er worden pannenkoeken gebakken – (Pancakes are baked here)

Er werd een eend gezien – (A duck was seen)

Notice, the indefinite "brood" "pannenkoeken" and "een eend" instead of the definite "het brood, de pannenkoeken, de eend". In an impersonal "er" construction the definite articles "de, het" cannot be used. For nouns of a collective nature like bread, grain, water etc. or for plurals there is no article at all. (If definite and indefinite nouns present a problem because they are not part of your mother tongue, you could review: Dutch/Lesson 4/Use of articles).

The active forms of these sentences are not very common in Dutch. They involve the indefinite pronoun men (people, they, one) that is seldom used anymore.

Men bakt hier brood – (People bake bread here)

Men bakt pannenkoeken – (People are baking pancakes)

Men heeft een eend gezien – (People saw a duck)

English will opt for the active form more readily in this case, but in Dutch the passive sounds much more natural. In fact the active sentences involving the pancakes or the duck sounds very artificial, like badly translated French: on a vu un canard. Colloquially people would rather use a clitic third person plural ze:

Ze bakken hier brood – (They are baking bread here)

Ze bakken pannenkoeken – (They are baking pancakes)

Ze hebben een eend gezien – (They saw a duck)

In the negative the negative indefinite article geen is used.

Er wordt hier geen brood gebakken

Er worden geen pannenkoeken gebakken

Er werd geen eend gezien

Impersonal passives can even be formed from many verbs that do not have an object:

Er werd gelachen – (Laughter erupted, people laughed)

Notice that in this sentence there is no subject if we continue to call er an adverb. Some grammars will therefore call it a dummy subject, but most do not.

English does not really have a direct equivalent of this type of sentence. It necessitates either an active translation or some other creative rendition. This adds to the fact that the use of the word "er" is a considerable difficulty for people learning Dutch, because such sentences are quite common in it.

In the negative niet is used in this case

Er werd niet gelachen – (Nobody laughed)

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 8 • Impersonal passives

Make these sentences into impersonal passive using "er"

Het museum wordt gesloten
Het zilver wordt gewogen
Het zilver wordt niet gewogen
De trombone wordt gespeeld
Men studeert
Men studeert niet
De spiegel wordt gecontroleerd
De spiegel wordt niet gecontroleerd
De tulpen worden niet gestuurd
Het verhaal wordt verteld

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 8 • Impersonal passives

Er wordt een museum gesloten
Er wordt zilver gewogen
Er wordt geen zilver gewogen
Er wordt (een) trombone gespeeld
Er wordt gestudeerd
Er wordt niet gestudeerd
Er wordt een spiegel gecontroleerd
Er wordt geen spiegel gecontroleerd
Er worden geen tulpen gestuurd
Er wordt een verhaal verteld

Notice that trombone can be treated either as collective or not, but the meaning is a bit different. In case you hear one trombone, in the other you hear trombone music.

Woordenschat 8: prepositions and their adverbs

These are some of the most common prepositions and their adverbial forms. Have a close look at the examples to get a gist of how they are used. Unfortunately the use of prepositions is usually hard to compare from one language to the other. Which preposition to use when is often pretty idiomatic and best learned by looking at larger utterances. We will expand on this topic in Les 17

preposition	prep. adverb	translation	example
―	noicon af	off	van het dak af – off of the roof
―	noicon heen	(indicates direction)	waar gaat dat heen? - where (whither) is that going?
noicon met	noicon mee, mede	with	met melk – with milk
noicon tot	noicon toe	to, till, until	tot maandag – till Monday
noicon van		of, from	twee van hen – two of them
noicon door		by, through	door hem gemaakt – made by him door het raam – through the window
noicon voor		for, before	voor het concért – for the concert vóór het concert – before the concert
noicon achter		behind	achter zijn rug – behind his back
noicon tussen		between	tussen twee bedrijven – between two act
noicon onder		under, beneath	onder de dekens – under the blankets
noicon over		over	over het hek – over the fence
noicon op		on, upon	op de tafel – on the table
noicon boven		above	boven het water – above the water
noicon na		after	na het skiën – after skiing
noicon naar		to	naar Amerika – to America
noicon zonder	north: ― south: zonder	without	zonder suiker – without sugar
noicon sinds	―	since	sinds de oorlog – since WW II
noicon vanwege	―	because of	vanwege ziekte – because of illness
noicon via	―	via	via Amsterdam – via Amsterdam
noicon behalve	―	except	behalve in dat geval – except in that case

Dutch prepositions are clearly a mixed bag. The older prepositions like "op", "van" etc. may very well have developed from their corresponding adverbs, in some cases getting altered in the process (mede -> met). A few like "af" and "heen" never underwent this process. The newer prepositions were either borrowed as such, like "via" from Latin or formed from a noun like "vanwege" = "van" + "weg" with a dative ending -e. They never underwent the reverse process to form an adverb and cannot undergo pronominal replacement. "Zonder" is an interesting exception. In Flanders adverbial pronouns like "waarzonder" are quite acceptable, but in the North they are not (yet?).

There also exist compound prepositional adverbs, their adverbial pronouns can at times split in up to three parts. They will be covered in lesson 23.

Woordenschat 8-2

de overwinning		victory
de loopbaan		career
het koekje		cookie (loanword of New York/Dutch origin)
de wielrenner		cyclist
het wiel		wheel
de zak		bag
het zakje		baggie
de koffie		coffee
de wereld		world
zetten		to put
koffie zetten		to make coffee
weerhouden		to keep from, to thwart
schrijven		to write
behalen		to score, to obtain
echter		though, however
even		quickly, with no effort, even
al		already
nog niet		not yet
geen		no
geen enkel		not a single
eenvoudig		simple

Quizlet

The vocabulary of the lesson can be trained at Quizlet (47 terms)

Progress made

If you have studied this lesson well you should

to able to understand and use Dutch adverbial pronouns
know a number of basic prepositions and prepositional adverbs

Cumulative term count

Cycle 1 : 579 terms

Lesson 5 : 87

Lesson 6 : 124

Lesson 7 : 163

Lesson 8 : 47

Total number 1000 terms

Congratulations! You have reached the mark of one thousand vocabulary terms!

Appendix

↑ In case you like baking here is a recipe
↑ Actually in Flanders people remember quite well whether a word is masculine or feminine and there haar could very well be used.

[1] In case you like baking here is a recipe

[2] Actually in Flanders people remember quite well whether a word is masculine or feminine and there haar could very well be used.

[1]

[2]