Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

### Impersonal Prepositional Passives

When giving a status update on a community project, you often do not need to specify *who* is doing the work. In English, you might say "It is being worked on."

In Dutch, when a verb has a fixed preposition (like **werken aan** - to work on, or **praten over** - to talk about), you form this subjectless passive using **er**, the auxiliary verb **worden**, the preposition, and the past participle.

{{item:826393}}

Notice how the sentence focuses purely on the action taking place. 

If you want to emphasize a specific topic (like saying "THAT is being talked about"), you can replace **er** with **daar**:

{{item:826396}}

When adding adverbs like **veel** (a lot) or **nu** (now), place them between **er** and the preposition:

{{item:826401}}

{{item:826403}}

In questions or sentences starting with something other than the subject, standard inversion applies: the finite verb (**wordt**) comes before **er**:

{{item:826405}}

Finally, in a subclause (such as after conjunctions like **tenzij** or **waarom**), the verbs get pushed to the end of the sentence, after the preposition:

{{item:826411}}

{{item:826412}}

Impersonal prepositional passives (er wordt... aan gewerkt)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

determiner/pronoun

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular pronouns and 'to be' (ik ben, hij is)

The formal 'you' (u bent)

Definite articles (de, het)

Plural pronouns and 'to be' (wij zijn)

The verb 'to have' (hebben)

Basic word order

Numbers 1 to 10 (een, twee, drie)

Verb stems and the 'I' form (ik werk)

Long vowels in verb stems (maken, ik maak)

Short vowels in verb stems (zitten, ik zit)

Present tense singular (-t)

Present tense plural (-en)

Yes/no questions

Question words (wie, wat, waar)

Noun negation (geen)

Plural nouns (-en)

Plural nouns (-s)

Diminutives (-je)

Adjective modifiers (heel, erg, te)

Verb negation (niet)

Singular possessives (mijn, jouw, zijn, haar)

Plural and formal possessives (ons/onze, jullie, hun, uw)

This and these (deze, dit)

That and those (die, dat)

Asking which (welke, welk)

Numbers 11 to 20 (elf, twaalf, dertien...)

Tens and compound numbers (dertig, veertig...)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (eerste, tweede...)

Telling time: hours and half hours (uur, half)

Telling time: quarters (kwart over, kwart voor)

Question words (hoeveel, waarom)

Irregular verbs (doen, gaan, staan, zien, komen)

Adjective endings (+e)

Adjectives with 'het' words

Prepositions of place (uit, bij)

Subject-verb inversion

Time before place

Modal verbs (willen, kunnen)

Modal verbs (moeten, mogen)

The verb bracket

Separable prefix verbs

The imperative mood (kom, luister)

Singular object pronouns (mij, jou, hem, haar)

Plural and formal object pronouns (ons, jullie, hen, u)

Reflexive verbs and pronouns (zich, me, je)

Position of negation (niet)

The present perfect tense with regular verbs (hebben gewerkt)

The present perfect tense with motion verbs (zijn gegaan)

Irregular past participles (gezien, gedaan)

The present continuous (zijn aan het)

There is / there are (er is, er zijn)

Unstressed there (er)

And, but, or (en, maar, of)

Because (want)

Months of the year

Prepositions of time (om, van ... tot)

Greetings and politeness

Conversational glue

Prepositions with days (op)

Prepositions with seasons (in)

Genitive of time ('s morgens, 's nachts)

Adverbs of frequency (altijd, vaak)

The future tense (gaan)

The future tense (zullen)

Separable verbs with auxiliary verbs

Apostrophe plurals ('-s)

Irregular plurals (-eren)

Complex diminutives (-pje, -etje, -kje)

Possessive 's (Jan's, vaders)

Indefinite pronouns (iets, niemand, alles)

Indefinite subject pronoun (je)

Reciprocal pronoun (elkaar)

Comparative adjectives (-er dan)

Comparatives with spelling change (-der)

Superlative adjectives (-st)

Irregular comparisons (beter, meer, minder)

Expressing preference (graag, liever, het liefst)

Equality comparisons (even ... als)

Fixed prepositions

That clauses (dat)

Because clauses (omdat)

If and when clauses (als)

Inversion after clauses

Separable verbs in clauses

Negation in clauses (niet)

Past tense of to be (was / waren)

Past tense of to have (had / hadden)

Question	Answer
community center	het wijkcentrum
The community center is old, but it is being worked on.	Het wijkcentrum is oud, maar er wordt aan gewerkt.
neighborhood council	de wijkraad
support / backing	het draagvlak
The neighborhood council is looking for support, so that is being talked about.	De wijkraad zoekt draagvlak, dus daar wordt over gepraat.
local resident	de buurtbewoner
to contribute ideas / to think along	meedenken
I asked how the local resident wants to contribute ideas.	Ik vroeg hoe de buurtbewoner wil meedenken.
greening / landscaping	de vergroening
Greening is important, so it is being thought about a lot.	De vergroening is belangrijk, dus er wordt veel over nagedacht.
paving	de bestrating
The paving was bad, so it is now being looked at.	De bestrating was slecht, dus er wordt nu naar gekeken.
playground equipment	het speeltoestel
Is the playground equipment already finished, or is it still being waited for?	Is het speeltoestel al klaar, of wordt er nog op gewacht?
solar panel	het zonnepaneel
We saw the mechanic install the solar panel on the roof.	We zagen de monteur het zonnepaneel op het dak installeren.
The solar panel for the community center is expensive, but it is being chosen anyway.	Het zonnepaneel voor het wijkcentrum is duur, maar er wordt toch voor gekozen.
bicycle parking / shed	de fietsenstalling
The bicycle parking is convenient, so it is being used a lot.	De fietsenstalling is handig, dus er wordt veel gebruik van gemaakt.
We are closing the community center, unless it is being paid for.	We sluiten het wijkcentrum, tenzij er voor wordt betaald.
Greening is important. I asked why it is not being talked about.	De vergroening is belangrijk. Ik vroeg waarom er niet over wordt gepraat.
The local resident is contributing ideas about the new paving.	De buurtbewoner denkt mee over de nieuwe bestrating.
We heard the children play on the playground equipment next to the bicycle parking.	We hoorden de kinderen op het speeltoestel naast de fietsenstalling spelen.
Today, the support is being talked about in the neighborhood council.	Vandaag wordt er in de wijkraad over het draagvlak gepraat.