Er in complex Dutch sentences: combined functions and word order

You know the five jobs of er one by one: "there" as a place, er is / er zijn, "of them" with numbers, erover / ermee with prepositions, and the subjectless passive. Real Dutch sentences, though, don't keep them apart. A sentence like Er hebben er gisteren twee over gesproken uses three functions in one go, and a long sentence can put ten words between er and its preposition. This guide shows how the functions combine, where er sits in a long sentence, and how daar and waar behave in the same patterns. If you need a refresher on the individual functions, start with the word er.

The five functions at a glance

The question at B2 level is: what happens when one sentence needs two or three of these at the same time?

When functions meet: two er's at most

The rules are simple to state:

1. A clause can contain at most two er's.
2. Two er's can never stand next to each other. If they would, one of them disappears.
3. The remaining er then does all the jobs at once.

Here's the classic example. The sentence needs an existential er (because the subject twee is indefinite), a quantitative er (twee of them) and a prepositional er (over it):

• Er hebben er gisteren twee over gesproken. — Two of them talked about it yesterday.

The first er is existential. The second er is quantitative and prepositional at the same time. Now see what happens when the first position is taken by something else, or in a subclause:

• Gisteren hebben er twee over gesproken. — Yesterday two of them talked about it.
• Ik hoorde dat er twee over hebben gesproken. — I heard that two of them talked about it.

In both sentences, the two er's would end up side by side (Wrong: Gisteren hebben er er twee over gesproken.), so only one is left, and it does all three jobs.

More combinations you'll come across:

Notice the second-to-last example: one er is both the passive er and the er of er … over. You don't say Er wordt er al jaren over gesproken.

Where er goes in a long sentence

Unstressed er likes to stand early in the middle field, while the preposition stays late, right before the verbs at the end. The longer the sentence, the further apart they drift.

Put together: Ik heb het er gisteren met mijn baas over gehad. — I talked about it with my boss yesterday.

Some more examples:

• Ik heb er de afgelopen weken eigenlijk nooit echt goed over nagedacht. — I've never really thought it through properly over the past few weeks.
• Hij heeft me er niets over verteld. — He didn't tell me anything about it.
• Ik leg me er niet bij neer. — I'm not going to accept it.
• Heb je het er al met haar over gehad? — Have you talked to her about it yet?

Three details matter here:

• Unstressed object pronouns come before er: het er, me er, never the other way round.
• Niet and nooit come before the preposition: er niet over, er nooit aan. Wrong: Ik heb erover niet nagedacht.
• When er and the preposition end up next to each other, they're written as one word: Ik heb erover nagedacht. When something comes between them, they're written separately: Ik heb er lang over nagedacht.

In a subclause, the same order applies, with the conjugated verb joining the cluster at the end: Ik weet niet of hij er al over heeft nagedacht. — I don't know if he has thought about it yet.

Daar and waar: the same split, with stress

Er is unstressed. When you want to stress "that", use daar. Daar usually moves to the front, and the preposition still waits at the end:

• Daar heb ik nooit echt goed over nagedacht. — That's something I've never really thought about.
• Daar kan ik niet tegen. — That's something I can't stand.
• Daar zit ik niet mee. — I don't mind that.

Waar works the same way in questions and relative clauses:

In speech the split form is far more common. In formal writing the unsplit form (waarover, waarmee) is also normal.

Waar … allemaal …

To ask for a list of things, add allemaal between waar and the preposition. English needs a paraphrase:

• Waar hebben jullie het allemaal over gehad? — What were all the things you talked about?
• Waar moet ik allemaal aan denken? — What are all the things I need to keep in mind?

The same works with wie and wat: Wie komen er allemaal? — Who's coming (all of them)? Wat heb je allemaal gekocht? — What did you buy (everything)? Note the plural verb komen in Wie komen er allemaal?: you expect several people.

Fixed expressions with er

Many common expressions contain an er that refers to "it" or the situation in general. They follow all the rules above.

When the preposition introduces a dat-clause or an om te-clause, er + preposition announces it: Ik ga ervan uit dat…, Hij is erin geslaagd om…. See verbs with prepositions for many more.

Common mistakes

Quick summary

• One clause holds at most two er's, and they never stand side by side.
• When two er's would touch, one disappears and the other does all the jobs.
• One er can be quantitative and prepositional at once (Ik heb er drie over gelezen) or passive and prepositional (Er wordt over gesproken).
• Unstressed er comes early (after pronouns like het, me); the preposition comes late, before the final verbs.
• Niet and nooit go before the preposition: er niet over.
• Daar (stressed) and waar (questions, relative clauses) split the same way; waar … allemaal … asks for a list.

Practise it

Put it all together in Er in complex sentences. For the basics, go back to The word “er”, and to practise the prepositions that go with er, try Verbs with fixed prepositions. The dummy het guide covers the other little word Dutch uses as a placeholder.