er - Home

met Wat doe je met een pen? Ik schrijf ermee.
What do you do with a pen? I write with it.
op O, wat is er met je bril gebeurd? Ik heb erop gezeten.
Oh, what happened to your glasses? I sat on them.
voor Wat een mooie trui! Wat heb je ervoor betaald?
What a beautiful sweater! What did you pay for it?
In the first example, eraan refers to toekomst, in the second, ermee refers
to pen (note that met changes into mee), in the third, erop refers to
bril, and in the last, ervoor refers to trui. In the four examples above, the
pronominal adverbs with er are not separated, they are written as one word.
However, when the sentence contains other elements such as an expression
of time, of negation, or an indirect or direct object, or an adjective
with a link verb, er has to be separated from the preposition. In the
following examples, the separating sentence elements are underlined.
Denk je aan de toekomst? Ja, ik denk er altijd aan.
Heb je op je bril gezeten? Nee, ik heb er niet op gezeten.
Wat doe je met die pen? Ik schrijf er deze brief mee.
Wat een mooie trui! Ja, ik ben er heel blij mee.
You will notice that the pronominal adverb with er appears separated much
more frequently than unseparated.
The function of er in a passive sentence
In a passive sentence (see also the unit on the passive voice in this book),
er begins a sentence without a subject. This occurs in sentences where human
activities are described, when the action of that sentence is more important
than the subject who is involved in the action, or, as one often reads
in crime reports, for instance, when the subject of the action is not (yet)
known. Examples:
Er wordt in Nederland veel gefietst.
People cycle a lot in the Netherlands.
Er wordt in deze fabriek kaas gemaakt.
They make cheese in this factory.
Er worden buien verwacht.
Rain showers are expected.
The following story includes more examples of the function of er. The
passive is underlined:
The
function
of er in a
passive
sentence
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