Word
Als wij eieren nodig hebben, koop ik er tien.
Meaning
If we need eggs, I will buy ten of them.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Als wij eieren nodig hebben, koop ik er tien.
Why is er used before tien?
This is the quantitative er, which translates to "of them". Whenever you state a number or quantity (like tien, meaning ten) of a noun that was already mentioned (the eggs), Dutch requires you to use er. Unlike English, you cannot just say "I buy ten" (koop ik tien). You must say "I buy ten of them" (koop ik er tien).
Why does the second part say koop ik instead of ik koop?
This happens because of the verb-second rule. The entire first clause (Als wij eieren nodig hebben) counts as the first block of information. To keep the main sentence's verb in the second position, koop has to come right after the comma, swapping places with the subject ik.
Why is hebben at the very end of the first part?
The word als (if) introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch, subordinating conjunctions like als push the conjugated verb—in this case, hebben—all the way to the end of that specific clause, right before the comma.
How does the phrase nodig hebben work here?
In Dutch, "to need" is not a single verb but a phrase: nodig hebben (literally "to have need"). You conjugate hebben to match the subject (wij hebben), while nodig stays the same. Because of the subordinate clause word order, both end up at the end of the first phrase.