Ermee, erop, waarmee: Dutch er and waar with a preposition

You want to say "I'm waiting for it." Your English brain builds the sentence in order: wait, for, it. So you say Ik wacht op het. A Dutch person will understand you. But it sounds wrong. The right word comes from a group that grammar books call Dutch pronominal adverbs.

Dutch doesn't put het after a preposition when it means a thing. It joins the two words instead. You get erop, ermee, eraan. The same idea works in questions and in relative clauses, with waar: waarmee, waarop. This piece explains the pattern step by step, with a lot of examples.

The core rule: things fuse with the preposition

Here's the rule in one line. After a preposition, a pronoun that means a thing becomes er + the preposition. A pronoun that means a person stays a normal pronoun.

English doesn't make this difference. "About him" and "about it" use the same pattern. Dutch splits them.

Look at the left column: aan hem, op hem, van hem, met hem. In the right column, hem is gone. The word er takes its place and the preposition joins it (eraan, erop, ervan). In the last row, er comes early and mee comes later. More on that below.

Dutch pronominal adverbs: how er + preposition works

The word er here means "it" or "that thing". It points to something you already talked about. Nobody has to name the thing again. That's why the pattern is so useful in real conversation.

Here are the prepositions you'll use most.

Two prepositions change their form. Met becomes mee, so you get ermee, never ermet. Tot becomes toe, so you get ertoe.

Dat heeft ertoe geleid.

That led to it.

You'll see ermee far more often than ertoe, but the change works the same way.

Now some full sentences.

Heb je de sleutel? Ik zoek er al een uur naar.

Do you have the key? I've been searching for it for an hour.

The verb zoeken naar means "to search for". The preposition is naar, and the thing pronoun is er. So you get er ... naar.

Ik ben nog niet klaar met het rapport. Ik werk er de hele dag aan.

I'm not finished with the report yet. I'm working on it all day.

We hebben een nieuwe bank. Ik ben er heel blij mee.

We have a new couch. I'm very happy with it.

Notice that in the last one, er and mee are not next to each other. Let's look at why.

Er and the preposition can be far apart

In a main clause, er usually sits early, after the verb. The preposition often waits at a later position. Other words can sit in between.

Ik denk er niet aan.

I don't think about it.

Hij is er echt trots op.

He's really proud of it.

If the sentence has a verb at the end, the preposition sits close to that verb.

Ik heb er lang over nagedacht.

I thought about it for a long time.

In a subclause, where the verb goes to the end anyway, the same thing happens.

Ik weet dat hij er blij mee is.

I know that he's happy with it.

So don't look for ermee as one solid word every time. When er and the preposition stand right next to each other, you write them together. When other words sit between them, you write them apart. Both are the same construction.

Worth knowing: the level of this topic depends on which part you mean. Recognizing waar + preposition may start around A2. The prepositional use of er usually layers in at B1 to B2, and using it systematically in your own sentences is generally B1. So if it feels hard, that's normal.

When you want to stress it: daar and hier

Er is a small, unstressed word. It can't stand at the start of the sentence for this use. If you want to put the thing first, or say it with emphasis, use daar ("that") or hier ("this").

Daar ben ik blij mee.

I'm happy with that.

Hiermee kun je het openen.

You can open it with this.

Daar ben ik bang voor.

I'm afraid of that.

Daar and hier follow the same fusing rule: daarmee, daarop, hiermee, hieraan. The difference is only the feeling. Er is neutral and quiet. Daar points at something.

Questions: waar + preposition

The same idea works for questions about things. Instead of "with what?", Dutch uses waar ("where", here meaning "what") joined to the preposition.

Waarmee schrijf je?

What do you write with?

Waaraan denk je?

What are you thinking about?

In everyday speech, people very often split the two parts, just like er ... mee.

Waar schrijf je mee?

What do you write with?

Waar denk je aan?

What are you thinking about?

Waar wacht je op?

What are you waiting for?

Both versions are normal Dutch. English speakers usually find the split version easy, because it looks like "What are you waiting for?", with the preposition at the end.

For people, Dutch asks differently. You use the preposition and wie ("who"), and you keep them together.

Op wie wacht je?

Who are you waiting for?

The waar form is for things only.

Relative clauses: the chair on which I sit

English has a formal pattern with "on which", "in which", "with which". Dutch has the same idea, and uses waar for it. The preposition joins waar and becomes one word.

Dat is de stoel waarop ik zit.

That's the chair on which I sit.

Dit is het huis waarin wij wonen.

This is the house in which we live.

Waar is de pen waarmee ik schrijf?

Where is the pen with which I write?

In speech, you'll often hear these split too.

Dat is de stoel waar ik op zit.

That's the chair I sit on.

It's the same relationship as the question forms above.

For a person, the pattern is different. You use the preposition and then wie, as separate words.

Dat is de vrouw met wie ik praat.

That's the woman with whom I talk.

That preposition + wie form is mostly written, and it's usually placed at B1 to B2. Don't worry if you don't use it yet. If relative clauses with die and dat are still new to you, start there.

Where English speakers go wrong

Here are the three mistakes to watch for.

Mistake 1: using het after a preposition. An English speaker builds "on it" and gets op het. Or "with it" and gets met het.

• Wrong: Ik wacht op het. (I wait for it.)
• Right: Ik wacht erop. (I wait for it.)
• Wrong: Ik ben blij met het. (I'm happy with it.)
• Right: Ik ben er blij mee. (I'm happy with it.)

Op het isn't a broken phrase by itself. Op het bureau (on the desk) is fine, because het bureau is a noun. The problem is only het as a pronoun, standing for something already mentioned.

Mistake 2: using die or dat after a preposition, for a thing. English says "the pen that I write with", so you look for a word for "that" and put it after the preposition. Dutch wants waar joined to the preposition.

• Wrong: de pen met die ik schrijf (the pen with that I write)
• Right: de pen waarmee ik schrijf (the pen I write with)

Die and dat are still normal relative words in Dutch. The mistake is only putting them right after a preposition when the thing is not a person.

Mistake 3: using er + preposition for a person. Once you learn the pattern, it's tempting to use it for everything.

Ik denk aan mijn zus.

I'm thinking about my sister.

Ik denk aan haar.

I'm thinking about her.

Here Ik denk eraan would mean you're thinking about a thing, not your sister. For a person, use aan haar, aan hem, aan hen (about them). Er + preposition is only for things.

Common mistake: learning the verb and the preposition as two separate items. Wachten and op belong together. Denken and aan belong together. Learn them as one unit and the er form comes easily: wachten op (to wait for), then erop. Other useful units are houden van (to love), trots op (proud of), bang voor (afraid of) and goed in (good at).

Edge cases

Some things this piece doesn't cover, on purpose.

Heads up: er has other jobs in Dutch. It can mean "there" (Er is een probleem, "There's a problem"), and it can stand for a number of things (Ik heb er twee, "I have two of them"). Those are separate topics, and the "there" uses have their own article. This article only covers er joined to a preposition.

Er can also refer to a whole situation or an idea, not only to a physical object. Ik ben er blij mee can be about a couch, but it can also be about a decision or a result. The rule is the same. If it isn't a person, it's er.

Finally, you don't need to memorize every combination. Learn the ones that come with verbs you use. The rest follows.

Putting it together

1. After a preposition, a thing becomes er + preposition: erop (on it), ermee (with it), eraan (about it).
2. A person stays a normal pronoun: aan hem (about him), op haar (for her).
3. Met becomes mee and tot becomes toe.
4. In a main clause, er and the preposition can be split: Ik ben er blij mee (I'm happy with it).
5. For emphasis or a first position, use daar or hier: Daar ben ik blij mee (I'm happy with that).
6. Questions about things use waar: Waar denk je aan? (What are you thinking about?)
7. Relative clauses about things use waar too: de stoel waarop ik zit (the chair I sit on).

Go practice this

Pick five verbs with a fixed preposition, like wachten op (wait for), denken aan (think about), praten over (talk about), houden van (love) and werken aan (work on). Write one sentence for each, first with a person and then with a thing. Check that the thing version uses er.

Say them out loud too. Ik wacht erop (I'm waiting for it). Ik denk eraan (I'm thinking about it). The sounds are short and quick, and saying them helps them feel less strange.

Next time you listen to a Dutch podcast or watch a Dutch show, listen for the word er in the middle of a sentence, with a small word like mee, op or aan later on. You'll notice it very often once you know it's there.

I built Tanaar to help people like you learn Dutch in their own time. Practice grammar, vocabulary and build your familiarity with concepts like er and waar with prepositions. It's free to start and practice weekly.