er — the word with no translation

Er is the hardest small word in Dutch because it does four unrelated jobs. You don't need to master it to be understood, but recognising the four uses makes listening much easier.

• Er is een probleem.

  There is a problem.

  1. existence — like English 'there is'

• Ik ben er geweest.

  I've been there.

  2. place — 'there'

• Ik heb er drie.

  I have three of them.

  3. quantity — 'of them'

• Ik denk er niet aan.

  I'm not thinking about it.

  4. replaces 'it' after a preposition

Job four is the one that trips people up. Dutch never says 'aan het' for a thing — it splits the preposition off and uses er: over het → erover, aan het → eraan, mee het → ermee.

• Ik ben ermee bezig.

  I'm working on it.

  met + het → ermee

• Ik kom er later op terug.

  I'll come back to it later.

  op + het → er … op

• Wat vind je ervan?

  What do you think of it?

  van + het → ervan