Breakdown of Hij zit er nu.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
nu
now
zitten
to sit
er
there (in that place)
Questions & Answers about Hij zit er nu.
Why does this sentence use er for 'there' instead of daar?
er is an unstressed version of daar (there). You use er when the location isn't the main focus of the sentence and you don't need to put special emphasis on it.
Where exactly is er referring to?
As a locative word, er replaces a specific place that was already mentioned or is obvious from the context. If someone asked 'Is he on the couch?', replying Hij zit er nu simply means he is sitting there on the couch.
Why is the word order er nu and not nu er?
The word er is a very light pronoun that likes to stick right next to the verb. In a standard sentence like this, it comes immediately after the verb (zit), which pushes the time word (nu) to the end.
Why does the translation say 'is sitting' if the Dutch word is just zit?
Dutch rarely uses a separate 'is doing' tense the way English does. The simple present tense zit covers both 'sits' and 'is sitting'.