Learn Dutch: De hond zit ook in de tuin. - The dog is also sitting in the garden.

In Dutch, we often use position verbs like zitten (to sit), staan (to stand), or liggen (to lie) to describe where something is, rather than using zijn (to be). Because a dog is usually sitting or resting on the ground, zit sounds very natural here.

How would I use the locative 'er' in this sentence?

If you already mentioned the garden and just want to say 'The dog is also sitting there,' you replace the specific place (in de tuin) with the unstressed location word er. The new sentence becomes: De hond zit er ook.

Why does 'ook' come before 'in de tuin'?

Short adverbs like ook (also) typically come after the conjugated verb but before phrases that describe a specific place, like in de tuin (in the garden).

In the version with 'er' (De hond zit er ook), why does 'er' come before 'ook'?

The little word er is unstressed and likes to pull up as close to the verb as possible. When you replace a place with er, it jumps in front of other adverbs like ook.