“Today we’re going to talk about everyone’s favourite word.” If I start my lesson with these words, most students know what’s coming. “Does anyone happen to know what that word is?” The response to this question is usually nervous shuffling, eye-rolling and deep sighs, but eventually someone always says “er…”. Exactly, ‘er’. But what makes this little word so troublesome?
Almost inaudible
To start with, you can barely hear the word ‘er’ in a sentence. Try saying the Dutch title of this blog post [Wat is er toch met ‘er’?] out loud. How does it sound? You probably say “Wat issur…” and herein lies the first ‘danger’.
To learn something, you first have to focus your attention on it. But how do you do that when a word is almost inaudible? This inconspicuousness also creates the erroneous impression that the word ‘er’ is unimportant, and this brings us the the second obstacle.
‘Er’ is often avoided
Students avoid ‘er’. In written texts they often miss the word out because they think that is has no meaning, and they don’t use it themselves because they don’t know what they’re supposed to do with it. And who can blame them!
In theory you can manage fine in Dutch without ever uttering the word ‘er’. However, it is important that students figure out and learn how to use the word ‘er’ in practice. Not only because it helps them sound more natural, but also because it helps them better understand the nuances of Dutch.
‘Er’ is used in a number of ways and has a definite meaning. Many in fact. The thing to remember is that the meaning of ‘er’ depends on the context. ‘Er’ (almost) always refers to something from the preceding sentence and can be replaced by that word. Have a look at the examples below.
What does ‘er’ refer to?
Example 1
- Question: “Hoeveel kinderen heb je?” (How many children do you have?)
- Answer “Ik heb er twee” (I have two.)
Example 2
- Question: “Heb je weleens gehoord van ‘glamping’?” (Have you ever heard of glamping?)
- Answer: “Ik heb er nog nooit van gehoord” (I have never heard of it.)
Example 3
- Question: “Wanneer was je voor het laatst in Amsterdam?” (When were you last in Amsterdam?)
- Answer: “Ik ben er vorig weekend nog geweest” (I was just there last weekend.)
The explanation
Hopefully, you said that ‘er’ refers to ‘kinderen’, ‘glamping’ and ‘in Amsterdam’ respectively. There is a subtle difference in the meaning of ‘er’ in these three examples too though, which is shown below.
Example 1: ‘er’ combined with a numeral
Question: “Hoeveel kinderen heb je?” (How many children do you have?)
Answer “Ik heb twee van deze personen/dingen” (I have two of these people/things.)
Example 2: ‘er’ combined with a preposition
Question: “Heb je weleens gehoord van ‘glamping’?” (Have you ever heard of glamping?)
Answer: “Ik heb nog nooit van dat verschijnsel/thema gehoord” (I have never heard of that phenomenon/subject.)
Example 3: ‘er’ combined with a place
- Question: “Wanneer was je voor het laatst in Amsterdam?” (When were you last in Amsterdam?)
- Answer: “Ik ben daar vorig weekend nog geweest” (I was just there last weekend.)
There are also situations where ‘er’ doesn’t refer to anything, e.g. in sentences like ‘Er wordt gelachen.’ (People are laughing) or ‘Er staat een man voor de deur.’ (There’s a man at the door). There is a grammatical explanation for both sentences, but suffice it to say that sentences that describe a situation start with ‘er’.
Finally, there are some idiomatic expressions with ‘er’: phrases/ word combinations whose literal meaning is not worth thinking about. What does ‘er’ mean in ‘Wat is er?’ (What’s up?) ‘Ik kom eraan’(I’m coming) and ‘Dat doet er niet toe’ (That doesn’t matter)? Answers on a postcard…
Want to know more about how to use er?
We would love to explain it to you in a customised Dutch as a second language training course tailored to your own learning needs.
This blog post is written by our trainer Vika Lukina and translated by Jo Arrowsmith.
