Learn Dutch: Er was 's nachts geen lawaai. - There was no noise at night.

In this sentence, er acts as a dummy subject, much like "there" in the English translation "There was no noise." We use it to introduce an indefinite noun — in this case, lawaai (noise) — when we want to state that something simply exists or happens.

Where does the floating 's come from in 's nachts?

's nachts is a fixed expression meaning "at night." The 's is short for des, an old Dutch word for "of the." You will see this same pattern with other times of the day, like 's morgens (in the morning) and 's avonds (in the evening).

Why does the sentence use geen instead of niet for negation?

We use geen because lawaai (noise) is an indefinite noun, meaning it does not have words like "the" or "this" in front of it. In Dutch, you always negate indefinite nouns with geen (meaning "no" or "not any"). Since this lesson's er is specifically used to introduce indefinite things, geen is the perfect match here!

Could I put 's nachts at the end of the sentence, like in English?