Met is "with," and most of the time it behaves exactly as an English speaker expects — you go somewhere met a friend, you cut bread met a knife. But met covers two stretches of ground where English uses a different word, and both are everyday, high-frequency situations. First, transport: where English says "by train, by bike," Dutch says met de trein, met de fiets. Second, the pronoun problem: "with it / with them" is never met het but the fused adverb ermee. Get those two right and met is one of the friendliest prepositions in the language.
Met as accompaniment — "together with"
The base sense: met links you to the people or things accompanying you. This maps onto English "with" perfectly.
Ik ga vanavond met mijn vriend naar de film.
I'm going to the cinema with my boyfriend tonight.
Kom je met de kinderen of alleen?
Are you coming with the kids or on your own?
Koffie met melk en suiker, alsjeblieft.
Coffee with milk and sugar, please.
Met as instrument — "using / by means of"
Met marks the tool or means you do something with: met een mes, met een pen, met je handen. Again this matches English "with."
Snijd het brood met een scherp mes.
Cut the bread with a sharp knife.
Schrijf het maar even met potlood, dan kun je het uitgummen.
Just write it in pencil (with a pencil), then you can erase it.
Hij maakte de foto met zijn telefoon.
He took the photo with his phone.
Met for transport — where English says "by"
This is the big divergence. To say you travel by some means, Dutch uses met de / met het + vehicle, not a "by"-word. English "by train" → met de trein; "by bike" → met de fiets; "by car" → met de auto. Note that Dutch keeps the article (met *de trein*) where English drops it ("by train").
| English | Dutch |
|---|---|
| by train | met de trein |
| by bus | met de bus |
| by car | met de auto |
| by bike | met de fiets |
| by plane | met het vliegtuig |
| by boat | met de boot |
Ik ga meestal met de fiets naar mijn werk.
I usually go to work by bike.
Met de trein ben je er sneller dan met de auto.
You get there faster by train than by car.
We zijn met het vliegtuig naar Spanje gegaan.
We went to Spain by plane.
The one notable exception is on foot: that is te voet or simply lopend, not met... — Ik ga lopend / te voet ("I'm walking / on foot"). Transport you ride in or on takes met de; using your own legs takes te voet.
Het is vlakbij, ik ga wel lopend.
It's nearby, I'll just walk (go on foot).
Met as manner — "with [a quality]"
Met attaches an attitude or manner to an action: met plezier, met tegenzin, met gemak, met zorg. These are often set phrases worth learning as units.
Met alle plezier, ik help je graag.
With pleasure, I'm happy to help you.
Ze deed het met tegenzin, maar ze deed het wel.
She did it reluctantly (with reluctance), but she did do it.
Hij won de wedstrijd met gemak.
He won the match with ease.
The pronoun trap: ermee, not "met het"
Here is the rule that catches every learner. When "with" would take a non-personal pronoun — "with it," "with that," "with what" — Dutch does not say met het or met dat or met wat. Instead the pronoun fuses with the preposition into a single prepositional adverb, and met irregularly becomes -mee:
- met + het/dat (it/that) → ermee / daarmee
- met + wat (what) → waarmee
- met + dit (this) → hiermee
Ik heb een nieuw mes gekocht en het brood ermee gesneden.
I bought a new knife and cut the bread with it. (ermee, never 'met het').
Wat is dit, en wat moet ik ermee?
What is this, and what am I supposed to do with it?
Daar ben ik het helemaal mee eens.
I completely agree with that. (the -mee can split off and move to the end — 'daar ... mee').
Het gereedschap waarmee hij werkt, is heel oud.
The tools (with) which he works are very old.
The idiom: met z'n tweeën
A very common pattern worth knowing: met z'n tweeën / met z'n drieën etc. means "the two of us / the three of them" — a group of that many doing something together. It's built from met + the reduced z'n + the number with -en.
We waren met z'n tweeën, dus het ging snel.
There were the two of us, so it went quickly.
Zullen we met z'n allen gaan?
Shall we all go together? (met z'n allen = 'all of us together').
Common Mistakes
The two big errors are met het for "with it" and using the wrong word for an instrument; transport and the article come close behind.
❌ Ik snijd het brood met het.
Wrong — 'with it' is never met het. The pronoun fuses into ermee.
✅ Ik snijd het brood ermee.
I cut the bread with it.
❌ Hij maakte de foto bij zijn telefoon.
Wrong — the instrument takes met, not bij. (Bij is 'near/at', not 'using'.)
✅ Hij maakte de foto met zijn telefoon.
He took the photo with his phone.
❌ Ik ga bij de trein naar Utrecht.
Wrong — transport is met de, not bij de. ('Bij de trein' means 'next to the train'.)
✅ Ik ga met de trein naar Utrecht.
I'm going to Utrecht by train.
❌ Ik ga met trein. (no article)
Wrong — Dutch keeps the article: met de trein. English drops 'the' in 'by train', but Dutch doesn't.
✅ Ik ga met de trein.
I'm going by train.
❌ met het met
Wrong — met is irregular before the fused pronoun: it becomes -mee, giving ermee/daarmee, never '-met'.
✅ ermee / daarmee
with it / with that.
Key Takeaways
- met = "with" for accompaniment (met mijn vriend), instrument (met een mes) and manner (met plezier) — these match English closely.
- Transport is met de / met het
- vehicle (met de trein, met de fiets), where English switches to "by" and drops the article. "On foot" is the exception: te voet / lopend.
- The instrument is met, never bij or door; door marks the agent of a passive, not the tool.
- "With it/that/what" is never met het — the pronoun fuses into the prepositional adverb ermee / daarmee / waarmee, with met irregularly becoming -mee, and the parts often split.
- Learn the idiom met z'n tweeën / drieën for "the [number] of us together."
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Dutch Prepositions: OverviewA1 — The big picture before the details: Dutch prepositions are largely idiomatic and almost never map one-to-one onto English, one Dutch preposition often covers several English ones (and vice versa), many verbs lock onto a fixed preposition (wachten op, denken aan), and a preposition plus er fuses into erop / eraan. Why word-for-word translation from English fails.
- Prepositions of Transport: Met de trein, Te voet, Op de fietsA2 — How to say how you travel: met de + vehicle for trains, buses, cars and boats (met de trein, met de auto), op de fiets / op de motor for two-wheelers you sit on, te voet or lopend for on foot, and the formal per trein. Why Dutch keeps the article ('met de trein', never 'met trein') where English drops it ('by train').
- Van: Possession, Origin, and MaterialA1 — Van is Dutch's all-purpose 'of/from'. It is the default way to show possession (de auto van mijn vader = 'my father's car' — spoken Dutch has no productive 's-genitive), it marks origin (Ik kom van het station), material (gemaakt van hout), part-whole relations (een van de boeken) and authorship (een boek van Mulisch). Its single most important job for an English speaker is replacing the English 's possessive.
- Pronominal Er: Er + Preposition (ermee, erop, erover)B1 — A preposition cannot take a thing-pronoun in Dutch, so er replaces it and fuses with the preposition — 'with it' is ermee, not 'met het'; 'about it' is erover; 'on it' is erop — with the irregular fusions met→mee and tot→toe.
- Fixed Prepositional ExpressionsB1 — A core set of frozen Dutch preposition phrases that must be learned whole — op tijd, uit het hoofd, in de war, op zoek naar, te koop — because the preposition inside them is fixed by idiom and almost never matches the English one word for word.