There is / There are (er is, er zijn)
There is / There are (er is, er zijn)
Dutch er corresponds to English 'there' in sentences like 'there is a problem', and at this stage the two behave almost identically. The differences show up in word order: er can be pushed out of first position by a time or place expression, something English 'there' never allows.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
er is and er zijn agree with the real subject
Er is een probleem. Er zijn veel mensen.
There is a problem. There are many people.
Just as English switches between 'there is' and 'there are', Dutch switches between er is and er zijn to match the noun that follows. er itself is an empty placeholder — it fills the subject slot so the sentence has something in front of the verb, while the grammatical subject (een probleem, veel mensen) comes after. The pattern extends to other verbs too: Er staat een man in de tuin, Er komen twee gasten.
Dutch prefers a specific verb where English says 'is'
Er staat een fles op tafel. Er ligt een boek op de stoel.
There's a bottle on the table. There's a book on the chair.
English uses 'there is' for almost anything. Dutch often replaces it with a posture verb that says how the thing is positioned: staan for upright objects, liggen for flat ones, zitten for things enclosed or contained, hangen for suspended ones. Er is een fles op tafel is not wrong, but Er staat een fles op tafel is what a speaker would actually say, and the choice of verb carries real information about the object's orientation.
er moves out of first position when something else takes it
Er zijn veel mensen in de stad. → In de stad zijn er veel mensen.
There are many people in town. → In town there are many people.
English 'there' is welded to the front of its clause. Dutch er is not: if you begin the sentence with a time or place expression, the verb takes second position and er slides in after it — In de stad zijn er veel mensen. In questions it does the same: Zijn er veel mensen? Getting used to er shifting position is the first step toward the much wider range of jobs er does at later levels.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- there is
- English
- there are
- English
- Is there ... ?
- English
- the problem
- English
- many / much
- English
- the people
- English
- to stand
- English
- to lie
- English
- the garden
- English
- nobody
Finished this lesson?