Dutch/Lesson 8

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Les 8 ~ Lesson 8

Er en de voornaamwoordelijke bijwoorden ~ Er and the pronominal adverbs

• Is there coffee?

• Grammar: Pronominal replacement

• Use of the locative er

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| ^ Contents ^ | << Les 7 | Les 8 | Les 9 >>

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Contents 1 Gesprek 8 2 Grammatica 8 ~ Er and the pronominal adverbs 2.1 Locative adverbs 2.2 Pronominal adverbs 2.2.1 Pronominal replacement 2.2.2 Translating its by replacement 2.2.3 Formation 2.2.4 Separation 3 Exercise 8.1 4 Exercise 8.2 5 Woordenschat 8

[edit] Gesprek 8

Marjo?

Ja, wat is er?

Is er al koffie?

Nee ik heb er nog geen gezet.

Nou, dan doe ik dat wel even. Zijn er zakjes?

Ja, in de kast. Zie je de broodtrommel? Ze liggen er vlak onder.

Heb je er ook nog een pak koekjes bij?

Ja, er zijn er zelfs twee.

[edit] Grammatica 8 ~ Er and the pronominal adverbs

[edit] Locative adverbs

The word er is one of the most ubiquitous words in the Dutch language and often rather hard to translate, because it does not have an exact counterpart in most other languages, French being an exception with the words y and en. Compare:

	Dutch		English
Type	Pronoun	Locative adverb	Pronoun	Locative adverb
Personal	het	er	it	??
Demonstrative (close)	dit	hier	this	here
Demonstrative (far)	dat	daar	that	there
Rel./Interrogative	wat	waar	what	where
Indefinite	iets	ergens	something	somewhere
Negative indefinite	niets	nergens	nothing	nowhere
General	alles	overal	everything	everywhere

Er relates to more specific indications of place like here, there, where, or somewhere in a similar way as the word it does to the more specific this, that or what. The word is a kind of locative wildcard. In computer terms you could say that er is *ere, with *=h-,th-.wh-. Another way of putting it is that er is the clitic (weak) form of hier or daar. It never carries emphasis.

In many cases where Dutch uses er, English will resort to a more specific there:

Is er koffie - Is there coffee?

Ken je Londen? Ja, ik ben er geweest. - Do you know London? Yes, I have been there

This is also true in the relatively few cases that English uses pronominal adverbs like thereof, therefore, thereafter etc. Dutch will distinguish a more general (clitic) ervan,ervoor, erna from a more specific (accentuated) daarvan, daarvoor and daarna.

[edit] Pronominal adverbs

In English pronominal adverbs like therein or hereby are a remnant from the past. They are quite old and occur in most Germanic languages, both of the Western and the Northern (Scandinavian) group. However, pronominal adverbs are much more prominent in Dutch than in English or the other Germanic languages. Their formation is still an active mechanism. If anything their use is increasing (due to the gender problem). They form an important part of the grammar and have to be mastered to speak the language properly.

Pronominal adverbs are commonly used in Dutch to replace the combination of preposition + pronoun, particularly if the latter is an inanimate it or them:

of it → thereof = ervan

for it → therefore = ervoor

This replacement is not just common, in many cases it is mandatory in Dutch.

[edit] Pronominal replacement

Although in the spoken language even this is slowly changing, it is uncommon, even somewhat disrespectful to apply pronominal replacement to people (animate nouns):

after her = na haar (not erna)

for them = voor hen (not ervoor)

In all other cases pronominal replacement is frequent or even mandatory. It is a major way of avoiding m/f gender references for inanimate nouns, because er is genderless. This means that replacement can also be applied to common gender words that do not really have a personal pronoun to refer them by.

The most common pronominal replacements (from the table above) are:

(van het)* → ervan

van dit,deze → hiervan

van dat,die → daarvan

(van wat)*, van welke → waarvan

van iets → ergens van

van niets → nergens van

van alles → overal van

(...)*: In this case the replacement is so common that not using the replacement is simply bad Dutch.

Notice that if the replaced pronoun is personal (het), demonstrative (dit,dat) or interrogative/relative (wat) the resulting pronominal adverb is written as one word (ervan,hiervan,daarvaan,waarvan). In other cases an adverbial expression with two separate adverbs results.

[edit] Translating its by replacement

In English it is common to use the possessive pronoun its to refer to a noun that indicates a thing. In Dutch, a pronominal adverb like ervan is used instead, again representing a convenient way to avoid the gender issue:

This tale is nice. Its beginning is spectacular.

Deze vertelling is leuk. Het begin ervan is spectaculair. (Yes, please..)

Deze vertelling is leuk. Haar begin is spectaculair. (No, please..)

Yes, in principle the latter is correct. A word in -ing is feminine, but who remembers? Occasionally a writer will try to dazzle the reader with this kind of superior knowledge, often only to get it wrong... Please use the adverbial ervan, especially if the noun is inanimate. This is true for neuter nouns as well

Dit verhaal is leuk. Het begin ervan is spectaculair (Yes, please..)

Dit verhaal is leuk. Zijn begin is spectaculair. (No, please..)

The latter is strictly speaking correct Dutch, but a neuter (inanimate) possessive zijn is so uncommon that it is better avoided. Possessives like zijn and haar are more and more reserved for animate masculine and animate feminine nouns (person, pets) and indicate natural rather than grammatical gender, just like the personal pronouns hij and zij.

[edit] Formation

A pronominal adverb is formed from the locative adverb that corresponds to the replaced pronoun + the preposition in adverbial form. Usually this prepositional adverb is the same as the preposition itself, but not always:

(met het)* → ermee (arch. ermede)

(tot het)* → ertoe

Pronominal adverbs can be formed from most prepositions. Words like ertussenin (lit. thereinbetween) or ergens achter (lit. somewhere behind) or even nergens onderuit (lit. nowhere from under out) do not raise any eyebrows.

A few adverbial forms do not have a corresponding prepositions:

eraf (off of it)

erheen (expresses a direction: to)

Conversely, some prepositions (like via, behalve, mits etc.) do not have a corresponding prepositional adverb. This makes it difficult to use them in relative clauses or in combination with it. Compare:

Dit is de weg waarlangs ik naar huis fiets.

Dit is de weg via dewelke ik naar huis fiets.

This is the road along which I ride my bike on the way home.

Because via does not have a prepositional adverb one is forced to use a relative pronoun like dewelke that is more and more experienced as awkward and archaic, because in most constructions it is replaced (langs dewelke → waarlangs).

[edit] Separation

To further confuse the enemy, pronominal adverbs are usually split apart in the sentence. Compare:

He has a remedy for it.

Hij heeft een remedie *(voor het).

Hij heeft een remedie ervoor.

Hij heeft er een remedie voor'.

The first translation is unacceptable. The second one is awkward, the third one is what most people would say.

In the case of the preposition van (of), the van-part may be omitted, giving the word er a partitive flavor:

He has seven of them.

Hij heeft zeven *(van ze).

Hij heeft zeven ervan.

Hij heeft er zeven van.

Hij heeft er zeven.

The four translations are unacceptable, awkward, reasonable and most common respectively.

The partitive flavor extends to the negative:

Is er koffie - Is there coffee?

Ik heb er nog geen (van) gezet - I have there(of) yet none made - I haven't made any yet.

Sometimes the two parts of the pronominal adverb can end up quite far apart:

Lance Armstrong heeft kanker gehad.

Lance Armstrong had cancer.

Hij heeft zich er echter, blijkens zijn zeven opeenvolgende overwinningen in de Tour de France, op geen enkele manier in zijn loopbaan als 's werelds sterkste wielrenner door laten weerhouden.

However, given his seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France, he did not in any way allow himself to be thwarted by it in his career as the world's strongest cyclist.

[edit] Exercise 8.1

Replace the object by a pronominal adverb:

e.g. Het boek ligt in de kast → Het boek ligt erin.

[edit] Exercise 8.2

Translate the above sentences into English in both forms.

[edit] Woordenschat 8

van                of, from
met                with
door               by, through
voor               for, before
achter             after, behind
tussen             between
onder              under, beneath
over               over
boven              above
tot                to, until
na                 after
naar               to

de overwinning     victory
de loopbaan        career
het koekje         cookie (loanword of New York/Dutch origin)
de wielrenner      cyclist
het wiel           wheel
de zak             bag
het zakje          baggie
de koffie          coffee
de wereld          world

zetten             to put
koffie zetten      to make coffee
weerhouden         to keep from, to thwart
schrijven          to write
behalen            to score, to obtain

echter             though, however
even               quickly, with no effort, even
al                 already
nog niet           not yet
geen               no
geen enkel         not a single

eenvoudig          simple

See also nl:wikt:Categorie:Nederlands voornaamwoordelijk bijwoord