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6
Indefinite
pronouns
48
Ik heb iets niet begrepen.
There’s something I didn’t understand.
Wil jij je koffie met iets erbij?
Would you like your coffee with something to eat?
Therefore, ‘Wat is beter dan niets’, ‘Ik heb wat niet begrepen’, and ‘Wil
je koffie met wat erbij?’ are all incorrect.
The pronouns iets and niets with prepositions
A more common alternative for the pronoun iets with a preposition is
ergens with a preposition. The negative form is nergens with a preposition.
Examples:
Ik denk aan iets. → Ik denk ergens aan.
I’m thinking about something.
Ik weet van niets. → Ik weet nergens van.
I am not in the know.
If the sentence has a direct object, the object follows nergens or ergens.
The preposition is at the end of the sentence. Example:
Heb je zin in iets? → Heb je ergens zin in?
Is there anything you’d like?
Hij heeft verstand van niets. → Hij heeft nergens verstand van.
He doesn’t have a clue about anything.
Al, alle(n), alles, allemaal
While all four of the pronouns listed above have a common meaning, namely
to refer to a collective of things or persons, they are different in their grammatical
use. First, a brief overview in the table below:
al with uncountable het-nouns, demonstrative and possessive
pronouns
alle with uncountable de-nouns in the singular, countable nouns
in the plural, and numbers
allen refers only to a group of persons (similar to iedereen
‘everyone’)
alles refers to a collective of things, the opposite of niets
allemaal refers to a collective of people or things, follows the noun
to which it refers