The last few classes we have talked about Er. It’s an adverb. In Dutch it has five different functions. It’s also a very, very annoying subject for buitenlanders to understand (myself included).

Function 1:

1. Er + telwoord (numeral, etc). Things to know with this form include:

a) it usually answers a question (if it is not you might be better off with function three)

b) some examples of telwoorden are: normal numbers (een, twee), but also words that describe an amount like weinig (not much), veel (a lot), geen (none), een paar (a few), een aantaal (a number).

c) er comes directly after the verb.

Heb je nog sigaretten? Do you still have cigarettes?

Ja, ik heb er nog twee. Yes, I have two.

Nee, ik heb er geen. No, I don’t have any.

Function 2:

Referring to a place. Er is the unstressed form of daar. Either might be used. Again, er/daar comes after the verb.

Ben je ooit naar Duitsland geweest? Have you ever been to Germany?

Ja, ik ben daar een paar keer geweest. Yes, I have been there a few times.

Function 3:

Er with an indefinite subject (There is a pen on the table, versus THE pen). Some things to know:

a) Er begins the sentence in a main clause. The indefinite subject comes after the verb.

b) You either use een (English = a) or nothing at all before the indefinite subject. Er loopt een man op straat. Er lopen mensen op straat. (A man walks in the street, people walk in the street – it is not always a clean translation)

Er staat een rode auto voor de deur. There is (literally: stands) a red car before the door.

Function 4 (B1-B2 level):

Here you have Er or the stressed form daar with a preposition. Sub function: Er pointing to a relative clause (i.e. a part of a sentence which cannot stand on its own like a main clause can).

a) For the first form, er usually combines with the preposition in some way. Usually as one word.

b) For the sub function, it’s harder to predict where er will be in this function. I think it is again right after the verb but I am not 100% sure.

Denk je aan de vakantie? (aandenken, to think of)

Ja, ik denk eraan. (Yes, I think about it.)

Function 2 – sentence without Er first: Ik ben trots op mijn kinderen. (I am proud of my kids, trots op zijn). Sentence with Er: Ik ben er trots op dat mijn kinderen op school goede resultaten halen. Er refers to ‘that my kids get good grades at school’, a relative clause. It is not easy to master this function!

Function 5 (B1-B2 level):

The last use of Er is in a passive sentence. Usually (if not always), Er begins the sentence and is followed by a conjugated version of worden or zijn.

Normal, active sentence: Ze praten in Nederlands veel over het weer. They talk in Dutch a lot about the weather. Passive version: Er wordt in Nederlands veel gepraat over het weer. There is a lot of talk in Dutch about the weather.

Happy Friday!

We found out earlier this week that we would have a new teacher every Thursday. In the beginning he was a bit nervous but he definitely got into the groove of teaching in the second half of the class.

One thing he did have was sentences where we had to fill in the missing conjunction. For example,

Er stond een lange file, vandaar dat ik te laat op mijn werk was. There was a lot of traffic, (and) from that I was late to work. Vandaar is  a bit bit interesting because it must always be proceeded by ‘dat’ or ‘that’.

Hij heeft erg weinig tijd. Dus gaat hij dit jaar niet met vakantie. He has too little time. Thus he is not going on vacation this year.

He also corrected our pronunciation a lot (probably a good thing!) and seemed quick to point out the differences between spoken Dutch and written Dutch. Things like mits (only if) and tenzij (but not if) being mostly written Dutch; normally you would say als (if) if you were speaking. Also daar (because) is written Dutch but omdat (because) is much more widely used especially when speaking.

He also talked a bit about the structure of a sentence, breaking it into its respective parts.

Jan en Joke || gaan || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren.

Jan and Joke are going to stay over at Aunt Toos with their kids this Sunday.

In Dutch you can start the sentence with pretty much element except logeren because it is the infinitive and is not a conjugated verb. You only need to remember one rule: the conjugated verb either comes first (if it is a question) with the subject right after, or the conjugated verb  goes into the second place, with the subject either right before it or right after it. The subject in this case is always Jan and Joke.

Here are some examples:

Gaan || Jan en Joke || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren?

Jan en Joke || gaan || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren.

Komende zondag || gaan || Jan en Joke || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren. (When you want to emphasis it is this Sunday.)

Met hun kinderen || gaan || Jan en Joke || komende zondag || bij Tante Toos || logeren. (When you want to emphasis that it is with their kids.)

Bij Tante Toos || gaan || Jan en Joke || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || logeren. (When you want to emphasis it is with Aunt Toos / where it is.)

Pretty cool, huh?

(Just say yes.)

Note: we don’t have class tonight, so the next class-related post won’t be until after Tuesday’s lesson.

I’m still alive! I have a short funny story from work, but first you need to know a bit of Dutch. In Dutch one can say “een … of <number>” to reference a length of time. For example, een jaar of tien. A year or ten. The one thing to remember is that een translates to ‘a’ not ‘one’ (it is the same word in Dutch). But you are expressing a bit of uncertainty with the answer. In English we would usually say “10 years or so”. You also have to know that where I work the working language is English, although you’ll hear some Dutch or similar occasionally.

When I came in this morning, there was a few people already in the kitchen/cafeteria area. A coworker as well as someone fixing the coffee machine – i.e. someone from the coffee company. My coworker asked how long it would be until the coffee machine was fixed. He replied (in English) “a minute or 10”. Heh.

In other news, here is some grammar (actually from the lesson before). I’ve already covered separable verbs, but in Dutch you can also have non-separable verbs. These are verbs that have a prefix on the front of the word, but it never separates from the verb. Examples are mislukken, voorspellen, ondertekenen (to fail, to predict, to sign). Unlike seperable verbs where the accent falls on the prefix, here the accent always falls on the first syllable after the prefix (mislukken, voorspellen, onderteken).

Mijn moeder was een getuige voor mijn bruiloft. Zij heeft de trouwakte ondertekend. My mother was a witness for my wedding. She signed the marriage license. Hi Mom!

Further examples:

Voor mijn verjaardag heeft mijn man mij met een etentje verrast. For my birthday my husband surprised me with a dinner.

Dit kan de overvaller niet zijn. Hij werd als een jongensachtig type omschreven. This cannot be the robber. He was described as a youngish type.

Mijn appeltaart mislukt altijd want mijn oven werkt niet goed. My apple pies always fail because my oven doesn’t work well.