Pronominal Adverbs: erop, eraan, waarmee

When a preposition refers to a thing or an idea (not a person), Dutch does not say op het or aan dat. It uses er, daar, hier or waar + the preposition: erop, daaraan, hiermee, waarover. In a sentence these words usually split: er, daar, hier or waar comes early and the preposition moves to the end, just before the final verbs. When nothing comes between them, they are written as one word: erin, eraan.

• Waar denk je aan? (What are you thinking about?)
• Daar heb ik zin in. (I'm up for that.)
• Ik ben er blij mee. (I'm happy with it.)

Two prepositions change form: met becomes mee and tot becomes toe (ermee, nergens toe). Daar is more emphatic than er. For people, keep a normal pronoun: Ik denk aan haar (I'm thinking of her).