What are pronominal adverbs?
In Dutch you cannot combine a preposition with het, dat, or wat when referring to a thing. Instead of van het or over dat, you use a pronominal adverb: er / daar / waar / hier + preposition, written as one word.
- wrong: Ik weet niets van het.
- right: Ik weet er niets van. — I know nothing about it.
| Base | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| er + prep | it (neutral) | ervan, erover, ermee |
| daar + prep | that (emphatic) | daarvan, daarover, daarmee |
| hier + prep | this | hiervan, hierover, hiermee |
| waar + prep | which / what (questions, relative clauses) | waarvan, waarover, waarmee |
Mee and toe: two irregular forms
Two prepositions change shape inside pronominal adverbs: met becomes mee, and tot becomes toe:
met → ermee, daarmee, waarmee, hiermee
tot → ertoe, daartoe, waartoe, hiertoe
Waarmee schrijf je? — What are you writing with?
Ik ben het daarmee eens. — I agree with that.
When do you use them?
- Referring back to a thing: Wat vind je van het plan? Ik heb er nog niet over nagedacht. — What do you think of the plan? I have not thought about it yet.
- Questions about things: Waarover praten jullie? — What are you talking about? (never over wat in careful Dutch)
- Relative clauses about things: De pen waarmee ik schrijf, is blauw. — The pen I write with is blue.
Note: for people, keep the preposition + pronoun: Ik denk aan haar. — I think of her. Pronominal adverbs are for things only.
Splitting: Ik denk er niet aan
In a main clause, the pronominal adverb is usually split: er/daar/hier stays close to the verb, and the preposition moves toward the end, before infinitives and past participles:
- Ik denk er niet aan. — I am not thinking about it.
- Zij heeft er lang over nagedacht. — She thought about it for a long time.
- We kijken er erg naar uit. — We are really looking forward to it.
In a subclause, both parts also stay separated, with the preposition just before the verbs at the end:
- Hij zegt dat hij er niets van weet. — He says that he knows nothing about it.
The unsplit form is possible when nothing stands between the parts: Ik denk eraan. As soon as words like niet, niets, or lang appear, the parts split around them.