Some verbs describe events with no real doer: rain doesn't rain the way a person runs; it just rains. English handles this with a meaningless "it" — "it is raining," "it is late" — and Dutch does exactly the same, using its own dummy subject het. This page covers the three families that lean on het: weather verbs (Het regent, Het sneeuwt), time and condition expressions (Het is laat, Het wordt koud), and — the one that genuinely surprises English speakers — the experiencer verbs like Het spijt me ("I'm sorry"), where the person who feels the emotion shows up as an object, not the subject. The good news: the het itself transfers straight from English "it." The challenge is the role reversal in the experiencer class. (This page is about dummy het; the separate dummy er — Er wordt gedanst — lives at er/placeholder-subject.)
Weather verbs take het
Almost every weather verb in Dutch is impersonal: the subject is het, full stop. There's no "the sky" or "the weather" doing the action — just het + the verb.
| Dutch | English |
|---|---|
| Het regent. | It's raining. |
| Het sneeuwt. | It's snowing. |
| Het vriest. | It's freezing. |
| Het waait. | It's windy. (lit. it blows) |
| Het hagelt. | It's hailing. |
| Het dooit. | It's thawing. |
Het regent al de hele dag.
It's been raining all day. — weather verb with dummy 'het'.
Het vriest tien graden.
It's ten degrees below zero. (lit. it freezes ten degrees) — vriezen, impersonal.
Neem een jas mee, het waait hard buiten.
Take a coat, it's blowing hard outside. — waaien for 'to be windy'.
The het is obligatory — you can never drop it. Even when something else opens the sentence and het moves to just after the verb (the V2 rule), it stays present.
Vanochtend sneeuwde het nog, nu regent het.
This morning it was still snowing, now it's raining. — 'het' survives after the fronted time phrase.
Time, conditions, and ambient states take het
A second batch of impersonal expressions describes the time, the general situation, or an ambient condition. These also run on het. They overlap heavily with English "it": "it's late," "it's getting cold," "it's busy here."
Het is laat, ik ga naar bed.
It's late, I'm going to bed. — het + zijn for a condition.
Het wordt koud, doe het raam dicht.
It's getting cold, close the window. — 'het wordt' for a developing state.
Het is hier altijd druk op zaterdag.
It's always busy here on Saturdays. — ambient condition, dummy 'het'.
Telling the time uses the same frame: Het is drie uur ("It's three o'clock"), Het is kwart over acht ("It's quarter past eight"). The het is the grammatical subject of the clock, just as in English.
Hoe laat is het? — Het is bijna twaalf uur.
What time is it? — It's almost twelve. — clock 'het'.
Experiencer verbs: the logical subject is the object
This is the family worth slowing down for, because here Dutch and English part ways in who appears as the subject. With verbs like spijten (to regret/be sorry), lukken (to succeed/manage), and bevallen (to please/suit), the person who feels or experiences is not the subject. The subject is het (or the thing being judged), and the experiencer shows up as an object — usually in object form: me, je, hem, ons.
| Dutch (experiencer as object) | Literal | Natural English |
|---|---|---|
| Het spijt me. | It regrets to-me. | I'm sorry. |
| Het lukt me niet. | It succeeds to-me not. | I can't manage it. |
| Het bevalt me hier. | It pleases to-me here. | I like it here. |
| Het verbaast me. | It surprises to-me. | I'm surprised. |
Het spijt me, ik kan vanavond niet komen.
I'm sorry, I can't come tonight. — experiencer 'me' is the object; 'het' is the subject.
Het lukt me niet om de deur open te krijgen.
I can't manage to get the door open. — 'lukken' with experiencer 'me'.
Bevalt het je hier in Amsterdam?
Are you enjoying it here in Amsterdam? (lit. does it please you) — 'bevallen' with experiencer 'je'.
The mental flip you have to make: English says "I am sorry," putting the experiencer in the subject seat. Dutch says "it is-sorry to-me," keeping the experiencer as an object. So you can never say Ik spijt — spijten simply doesn't take a personal subject. The thing that regrets, grammatically, is het.
Why het and not er here
A quick disambiguation, because both het and er fill "empty subject" slots and learners blur them. Dummy het is used for weather, time, conditions, and these experiencer verbs — cases where there's a genuine (if abstract) predicate about the ambient situation. Dummy er is used for impersonal passives and to introduce an indefinite subject: Er wordt gedanst ("There's dancing"), Er staat iemand voor de deur ("There's someone at the door"). They're not interchangeable: Er regent is wrong, and so is Het wordt gedanst. Weather and experiencer verbs are firmly het territory; the er constructions are at er/placeholder-subject.
Het regent, en er wordt binnen gedanst.
It's raining, and inside there's dancing. — 'het' for weather, 'er' for the impersonal passive.
Common Mistakes
❌ Regent al de hele dag.
Incorrect — the dummy subject 'het' is obligatory and can't be dropped, even though English keeps 'it' too.
✅ Het regent al de hele dag.
It's been raining all day.
❌ Ik spijt dat ik niet kan komen.
Incorrect — 'spijten' has no personal subject; the experiencer is the object and the subject is 'het'.
✅ Het spijt me dat ik niet kan komen.
I'm sorry I can't come.
❌ Ik luk het niet.
Incorrect — 'lukken' takes 'het' as subject and the experiencer as object: 'het lukt me niet'.
✅ Het lukt me niet.
I can't manage it.
❌ Vanochtend, het sneeuwde nog.
Wrong order — after a fronted phrase, V2 puts the verb second and 'het' right after it: 'sneeuwde het'.
✅ Vanochtend sneeuwde het nog.
This morning it was still snowing.
❌ Er regent.
Incorrect — weather verbs take the dummy 'het', not 'er'.
✅ Het regent.
It's raining.
Key Takeaways
- Weather verbs (regenen, sneeuwen, vriezen, waaien) take the obligatory dummy subject het: Het regent.
- Time, clock, and ambient-condition expressions also use het: Het is laat, Het wordt koud, Het is drie uur.
- Experiencer verbs (spijten, lukken, bevallen, verbazen) put the experiencer in the object slot and het in the subject slot: Het spijt me, never Ik spijt.
- The het can never be dropped, and after a fronted phrase it sits right after the verb (V2): Vanochtend sneeuwde het.
- Don't confuse dummy het (weather/experiencer) with dummy er (impersonal passives, introducing indefinite subjects).
Now practice Dutch
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Er as a Repleted (Dummy) SubjectB2 — How er fills the empty subject slot in impersonal passives and weather-like constructions — a Dutch frame with no English equivalent.
- Experiencer Verbs: Lukken, Bevallen, Spijten, OpvallenB2 — A class of verbs where the experiencer is an object, not the subject — Het lukt me (I manage), Het bevalt me (I like it), Het valt me op (I notice), and the untranslatable meevallen/tegenvallen.
- Colour Words and Colour IdiomsA2 — The Dutch colours — rood, oranje, geel, groen, blauw, paars, roze, bruin, zwart, wit, grijs — how they take the -e ending as adjectives, and a set of genuine colour idioms: rood worden (blush), groen licht geven, zwartrijden (fare-dodge), iemand zwartmaken (badmouth), door een roze bril kijken, een blauwtje lopen (be rejected), and zich groen en geel ergeren.
- Using the Present Tense (Including the Future)A2 — Everything the Dutch simple present covers — habits, the live now, general truths, and, crucially, the everyday future a time word turns it into.
- Ordering Verbs in the Final ClusterB2 — When two or more verbs pile up at the end of a subordinate clause, the order among them can vary — the famous 'red' and 'green' word orders — and with three verbs the infinitivus-pro-participio rule kicks in.