Breakdown of Ik vind de baas onredelijk omdat hij er niet mee instemt.
ik
I
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
niet
not
de baas
the boss
Questions & Answers about Ik vind de baas onredelijk omdat hij er niet mee instemt.
Why is ermee split up by niet in this sentence?
In Dutch, pronominal adverbs like ermee (with it) are often split. Because this is a subordinate clause, er jumps early in the sentence right after the subject hij, while mee gets pushed towards the end, right before the verb instemt. This forces niet to sit exactly between them.
The English translation says "agree with", but I see mee instead of met. Why?
The verb is instemmen met (to agree with). However, when met is combined with er to mean "with it", it changes into mee. This is a strict rule for met: it always becomes mee when forming a pronominal adverb like ermee, waarmee, or daarmee.
Why is instemt written as one word at the end, rather than stemt in?
The word omdat introduces a subordinate clause, which forces all verbs to the very end of the sentence. In a normal main clause, the separable verb instemmen would split (for example: Hij stemt er niet mee in). But in a subordinate clause, the separable prefix (in) and the verb (stemt) merge back into a single word at the end.
Could I keep ermee together and say ?