Sooner or later every language has to say something without naming who does it: one never knows, you can't park here, there's a lot of building going on, it's raining. English has a whole toolkit for this — one, generic you, they, people, the agentless passive, dummy it. Dutch has its own toolkit, and although the pieces look similar, the register split is different and the impersonal passive has no clean English counterpart. This page sorts the Dutch impersonal devices by who uses them and when, so you can sound natural rather than either stiff (men everywhere) or broken (a passive with the obligatory er missing).
The four core devices are men (formal "one/people"), generic je and ze (everyday "you" and "they"), the impersonal passive with er (an action with no named agent), and impersonal het for weather and for experiencer clauses like het lukt me. They are not freely interchangeable: each carries its own register and its own structure.
Men: the formal generic subject
Men means "one" or "people in general" and is unambiguously (formal). It belongs in writing, journalism, officialese and lectures. It always takes a singular verb, just like English one, and it can only be a subject — there is no object form *men and no possessive.
Men zegt dat de winters vroeger strenger waren.
People say the winters used to be harsher. Formal generic 'men' + singular verb 'zegt'.
In dit gebouw mag men niet roken.
One may not smoke in this building. 'Men' on an official notice — typical formal register.
Men gaat ervan uit dat de cijfers kloppen.
One assumes the figures are correct. Academic/formal 'men'; note it stays singular.
The single biggest mistake learners make with men is using it everywhere, because it maps so neatly onto English one and German man. In ordinary spoken Dutch men sounds bookish, even pompous. A native speaker chatting would almost never say Men weet maar nooit; they say Je weet maar nooit. Reserve men for genuinely formal contexts.
Generic je: the everyday "you = anyone"
In everyday speech the workhorse is generic je — exactly like English generic you, which doesn't mean the listener but "anyone, people in general." It is (informal) to neutral and far more common in conversation than men. The verb agrees with je in the normal second-person way.
Je weet maar nooit wat er kan gebeuren.
You never know what might happen. Generic 'je' — not 'you' the listener, but anyone.
Vanuit hier kun je de hele stad zien liggen.
From up here you can see the whole city. Generic 'je' describing what anyone would experience.
Als je vriendelijk bent, zijn de mensen vriendelijk terug.
If you're friendly, people are friendly back. Generic 'je' stating a general truth.
Note that in a question or after fronting, generic je inverts and reduces just like the ordinary pronoun: Hoe weet je nou ooit zeker dat…? The genericness is contextual, not a separate word.
Generic ze: "they / people"
Parallel to generic you is generic ze ("they / people"), used when the unnamed doers are some vague external group — society, the authorities, the experts, "them." It takes a plural verb and is neutral to (informal). It is the natural everyday alternative to a formal passive or to men.
Ze zeggen dat het morgen gaat sneeuwen.
They say it's going to snow tomorrow. Generic 'ze' — unspecified 'people / the forecast'.
Ze hebben de weg weer opengebroken.
They've dug up the road again. 'Ze' = the council/workmen, no one in particular.
Vroeger trouwden ze veel jonger.
People used to marry much younger. Generic 'ze' for society at large.
The impersonal passive: er + worden + verb
Here is the device with no tidy English equivalent. When you want to report that an activity is going on with no named agent and no object — pure action — Dutch builds an impersonal passive: worden + past participle, with the dummy er holding the empty subject slot. This is the natural Dutch way to say "there is dancing / people are working / smoking is not allowed."
Er wordt nog steeds hard gewerkt aan de nieuwe brug.
Work is still going on hard on the new bridge. Impersonal passive: agentless action, with obligatory 'er'.
Op het plein werd er gezongen en gedanst.
On the square there was singing and dancing. Past-tense impersonal passive; the action, not a doer, is reported.
Er wordt hier niet gerookt.
There's no smoking here. A very common notice — the impersonal passive states the rule without naming anyone.
The er is grammatically obligatory: it is the subject of the clause, and without it the sentence is broken (*Wordt hier niet gerookt as a statement is ungrammatical). The only time er can be dropped is when some other constituent already fills first position, because then the verb-second slot is taken and the existential er is no longer needed up front — Op het plein werd gezongen is fine without a second er. But in a neutral, subject-first statement, er must be there.
Impersonal het: weather, time, and experiencer clauses
Finally, het is the impersonal subject for weather, time and ambient conditions (covered in depth on the dummy-subjects page) and for a small but high-frequency family of experiencer constructions where Dutch makes the situation the subject and the person an object.
Het regent al de hele ochtend.
It's been raining all morning. Weather 'het' — a dummy with no referent.
Het lukt me niet om de dop eraf te krijgen.
I can't manage to get the cap off. 'Het' is the subject; the experiencer 'me' is an object — literally 'it succeeds-not to-me'.
Het spijt me dat ik zo laat ben.
I'm sorry I'm so late. Literally 'it grieves me' — Dutch makes the situation the subject, the person the object.
These experiencer verbs (het lukt me, het spijt me, het bevalt me, het verbaast me) are the mirror image of English, which usually makes the person the subject (I'm sorry, I managed). In Dutch the impersonal het is the grammatical subject, the verb agrees with it (always singular), and you appear as a dative-like object pronoun (me, je, hem). Learn these as fixed frames.
Choosing the right impersonal device
| You want to express… | Use | Register | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| "one / people" in formal writing | men (+ sg. verb) | formal | Men zegt dat… |
| "you = anyone" in speech | generic je | informal–neutral | Je weet maar nooit. |
| "they / people out there" | generic ze (+ pl. verb) | informal–neutral | Ze zeggen dat… |
| an agentless activity ("there is X-ing") | er
| neutral | Er wordt gedanst. |
| weather / "it succeeds/grieves me" | impersonal het | neutral | Het lukt me niet. |
The practical rule of thumb: in conversation default to je and ze; save men for formal prose; use the er-passive whenever you would say "there's a lot of X-ing going on" in English; and treat the het-experiencer verbs as memorised frames.
Common Mistakes
❌ Men weet maar nooit, hè?
Incorrect register — 'men' is far too formal for casual speech; this sounds pompous.
✅ Je weet maar nooit, hè?
You never know, eh? Everyday generic 'je' is the natural choice in conversation.
❌ Wordt hier niet gerookt.
Incorrect — the impersonal passive needs the dummy subject 'er' to fill the empty subject slot.
✅ Er wordt hier niet gerookt.
There's no smoking here. 'Er' is the obligatory subject of the impersonal passive.
❌ Men zeggen dat het gaat regenen.
Incorrect — 'men' is always singular; it cannot take the plural 'zeggen'.
✅ Men zegt dat het gaat regenen.
People say it's going to rain. 'Men' + singular 'zegt'. (In speech you'd say 'Ze zeggen…'.)
❌ Ik lukt niet om het te openen.
Incorrect — Dutch makes the situation the subject, not the person; the frame is 'het lukt me'.
✅ Het lukt me niet om het te openen.
I can't manage to open it. Impersonal 'het' is the subject; you are the object 'me'.
❌ Is koud buiten, doe een jas aan.
Incorrect — a weather clause still needs the impersonal subject 'het'; Dutch never leaves the slot empty.
✅ Het is koud buiten, doe een jas aan.
It's cold outside, put a coat on. Weather 'het' fills the subject slot.
Key Takeaways
- Men = "one/people," (formal) only, always singular, subject-only. Overusing it in speech is the classic learner tell — switch to je/ze.
- Generic je ("you = anyone") and ze ("they/people," plural verb) are the everyday spoken impersonals.
- The impersonal passive er
- worden
- participle reports an agentless activity; the er is an obligatory subject and may only be dropped when another constituent already fills first position.
- worden
- Impersonal het covers weather and a family of experiencer verbs (het lukt me, het spijt me) where the situation is the subject and the person an object — the reverse of English.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Dummy Subjects: Het and ErB2 — Dutch, like English, sometimes needs a placeholder subject that fills the grammatical slot without referring to anything. 'Het' covers weather, time and anticipatory clauses; 'er' is the existential, presentative subject and the subject of the impersonal passive. Choosing the wrong one is one of the most persistent B2 errors.
- Indefinite Pronouns: Iemand, Iets, Niemand, Niets, MenA2 — The 'someone/something/no one/nothing' words — iemand, iets, niemand, niets — plus alles and iedereen, and the impersonal men ('one'). Two traps for English speakers: men sounds stiff where everyday Dutch uses generic je or ze (Je weet maar nooit; Ze zeggen dat...), and an adjective after iets/niets takes a tacked-on -s (iets leuks, niets nieuws).
- The Passive with WordenB1 — How Dutch builds the dynamic, process passive with worden plus a past participle — De brief wordt geschreven — and why this 'something is being done' passive is grammatically separate from the resulting-state passive with zijn.
- Existential and Presentative ErA2 — Presentative er introduces a brand-new, indefinite subject onto the scene — Er is koffie, Er staan veel mensen op straat — and is omitted the moment the subject becomes definite.
- Subject–Verb Agreement: Edge CasesB2 — The tricky corners of Dutch agreement: collective subjects like 'een aantal mensen', existential clauses where the verb agrees with the postponed real subject ('er staat een boek' vs 'er staan boeken'), coordinated subjects, and the 'jij bent' → 'ben jij' shift after inversion. The rules that the basic paradigm doesn't cover.