Breakdown of Ik let erop dat ze veilig spelen.
ik
I
spelen
to play
veilig
safe
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
dat
that (conjunction)
er
it (with a preposition: "on it", "with it")
letten op
to pay attention to
Questions & Answers about Ik let erop dat ze veilig spelen.
Why do we use erop here instead of just op?
We use erop because it acts as a bridge. The verb is letten op (to pay attention to / to see to). In Dutch, you cannot put a preposition like op directly in front of a dat clause. Instead, you combine er + op to make erop, which basically means 'to it', pointing ahead to the dat clause.
Can I leave out erop and just say 'Ik let dat ze veilig spelen'?
No, because the verb is strictly letten op. If you drop erop, you lose the op part of the verb. English does something similar when we say 'I see to it that...', where 'to it' acts just like erop.
How do I know which preposition to attach to er? Why op and not aan or in?
It depends entirely on the fixed preposition that goes with the main verb. Because the Dutch expression is letten op (to pay attention to), the anticipation word must be erop.
Why is the verb spelen at the very end of the sentence?
The word dat (that) introduces a subordinate clause (a dependent part of the sentence). In Dutch, these clauses push the working verb all the way to the end. So instead of 'dat ze spelen veilig', it must be dat ze veilig spelen.
In English we say 'safely', but the Dutch word is just veilig. Is that correct?
Yes! In English, we often add '-ly' to turn an adjective (safe) into an adverb describing an action (safely). In Dutch, you usually just use the exact same word for both. So veilig means both 'safe' and 'safely'.
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