Word order exercises Wiki Dutch Word Order (EN)

This type of er is hardly different from the previous type. It comes from ervan, meaning 'of it' or 'of them'.

Because 'it' is combined with a preposition, we use er instead. At some point, the Dutch decided to drop the postposition van, leaving us with a bare er. Note that the omission of van only applies to er, not to hier or daar.

Examples

We do not have to omit van: