- REFERRING EXPRESSIONS
- adverbs of time, manner and place
- adverb, pronominal
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- antecedent
- demonstrative pronominal adverb
- demonstrative pronoun
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- er
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- gender and pronouns
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- indefinite pronominal adverb
- indefinite pronoun
- interrogative pronominal adverb
- interrogative pronoun
- personal pronominal adverb
- personal pronoun
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- possessive pronoun
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- pronominal adverb, demonstrative
- pronominal adverb, indefinite
- pronominal adverb, interrogative
- pronominal adverb, personal
- pronominal adverb, relative
- pronouns
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- pronoun and gender
- pronoun, demonstrative
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- pronoun, indefinite
- pronoun, interrogative
- pronoun, personal
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- pronoun, possessive
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- pronoun, relative
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- pronoun, stressed
- pronoun, unstressed
- relative pronominal adverb
- relative pronoun
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- stressed pronoun
- unstressed pronoun
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Referring expressions - Verwijswoorden
Er
The word er occurs a lot in Dutch and can be used effectively to create >>cohesion in a text. Below you find a discussion of three diferent types of er: locative er, existential er and quantitative er. In addition, er is used as a pronominal adverb.
LOCATIVE ER
Locative er is the unstressed form of daar (‘there') and is often used when the same location is referred to for a second time in the same text. Daar and (locative) er are adverbs of place, indicating a location, hence the term locative.
| John van 't Schip stapt op als trainer van FC Twente. Hij werd daar vorig jaar hoofdtrainer, en beleefde een moeilijk seizoen. Hij wil er graag weg, zegt hij. |
| John van 't Schip is quitting his job as trainer of FC Twente. Last year he became head trainer there, and experienced a difficult season. He is keen to leave (there), he says. |
EXISTENTIAL ER
Existential er is derived from the locative meaning, but with this type of er there is no parallel stressed form. It is mainly used in sentences with an indefine subject (in the example below iets is an indefinte pronoun).
| Of je nou jong of oud bent, er is in Amsterdam voor iedereen iets te zien. |
| Whether you are young or old, there is someone to see for everyone in Amsterdam. |
QUANTITATIVE ER
This type of er is not related to the locative or existential types. It occurs invariably with >>numerals or other words expressing quantities (eg. een, geen or veel) and normally remains untranslated in English.
| "Wie is jouw favoriete artiest?" "Ik heb er twee: bassist Charlie Haden en gitarist Pat Metheny." |
| "Who is your favorite artist?" "I have two: basist Charlie Haden and guitarist Pat Metheny." |
In the extract from the fairy tale by Andersen on >Adverbs of Time, Manner and Place there are six occurrences or er: four existential er's, one quantitative er and one pronominal adverb er.
Er was eens een prins; hij wilde een prinses hebben, maar het moest een echte prinses zijn. Toen reisde hij de hele wereld rond om er eentje te vinden, maar overal was er wat mee. Prinsessen waren er genoeg, maar hij kon er nooit achter komen of het nu echte prinsessen waren; er was telkens iets dat niet helemaal klopte. Daarom ging hij maar weer naar huis en was zeer bedroefd, want hij wilde zo graag een echte prinses hebben.
(Uit: Sprookjes van Andersen Utrecht: Het Spectrum 1961) |
| Once upon a time there was a prince; he wanted to have a princess, but it had to be a real princess. Then he went around the whole world to find one, but everywhere there was something the matter with them. There were plenty of princesses, but he could never discover if they were genuine; every time there was something that wasn't quite right. That's why he went back home and he was very sad, for he would so love to have a real princess. |
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