Meaning of 'er' in 'Het ziet er naar uit dat...'

[aleix]

Hallo allemaal,

I'm having a hard time trying to understand the meaning of 'er' in this sentence:

Het ziet er naar uit dat het gaat regent.

Here the verb is 'uitzien'.


What is 'er' doing here? Is it working as a "het"? In this case, why is it needed? I mean, we are mentioning 'het gaat regent' in the same sentence.
Or is 'er' working as some sort of 'daar'? or else?

Also this sentence:

Van binnen moet de Lijn eruit gaan zien als een grote groene stad.

Here the verb is 'eruitzien', which I guess 'eruit' is part of the verb an there is no way around it. But, how much different are 'eruitzien' and 'uitzien'.

Thanks a lot for your help.
I really appreciate it because I'm going through a sort of crisis in which everyday I seem to understand less dutch instead of progressing in my knowledge!!

[LeSNT2]

About your first sentence: It should be "Het ziet ernaar uit dat het gaat regenen." The difference between 'ernaar' and 'er naar' is the following:
"Ik zie er naar uit." = I look awful.
"Ik zie ernaar uit." = I'm looking forward to it.

If you have more than one verb in a sentence, the second/third/fourth verb is an infinitive (if the sentence is in future tense or present tense). So:
"Het ziet ernaar uit dat het gaat regenen." has three verbs. The second part of the sentence 'dat het gaat regenen' is a subclause and has two verbs, therefore the second verb is an infinitive.

About your question: So the verb is 'uitzien', the fixed preposition is 'naar' and verbs that use a fixed preposition uses 'er'. It's the same in your second sentence. The verb is 'uitzien', the fixed preposition is 'naar'.

Maybe this information will help you: https://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=Pronouns.ad02 This website may also be helpful: https://zichtbaarnederlands.nl/en/adverb/er

Also: don't panic, learning a language is very difficult. I always tell my students 'If you understand 'er', I'm done teaching.' It's one of the hardest topics in Dutch!

[aleix]

Hello, thanks for your answer.
Did you mean "forward' instead of 'awful' in your first example?
Thanks

[LeSNT2]

Hello, thanks for your answer.
Did you mean "forward' instead of 'awful' in your first example?
Thanks

No, I meant awful. 'naar' can mean 'to' or something like 'awful/bad' so that's exactly the difference between 'Ik zie er naar uit.' and 'Ik zie ernaar uit.' spaces cán be very important