Breakdown of Er zijn mooie boeketten, maar wij moesten er twee goedkope kiezen.
zijn
to be
maar
but
wij
we
twee
two
Questions & Answers about Er zijn mooie boeketten, maar wij moesten er twee goedkope kiezen.
What is the purpose of the second er in er twee goedkope kiezen?
This is the quantitative er. It acts like the English phrase 'of them' when you are counting things that were already mentioned. Because we are talking about boeketten (bouquets) but not repeating the word, we must use er along with the number twee to mean 'two of them'.
Why does goedkope get an -e ending if there is no noun right after it?
Even though the noun boeketten is left out, the adjective goedkope still behaves as if the plural noun is there. In Dutch, when an adjective stands alone with a number and quantitative er to replace a noun, it keeps its regular -e ending. Here, it translates to 'cheap ones'.
Are the two instances of er in this sentence doing the same thing?
Why is the verb kiezen pushed to the very end of the sentence?