Question 1

Why are er and uit attached to each other as eruit, and why are they placed there?

Accepted Answer

The verb here is eruitzien (to look like). It is a separable verb that has an intrinsic, or built-in, er. In a main clause question like this, the conjugated verb (zie) takes the second position after the question word, while the eruit part gets kicked to the end of the core clause, right before the extra prepositional phrase.

Question 2

Could I put eruit at the very end of the sentence, after the hairstyle?

Accepted Answer

You technically could say "Hoe zie ik met dit nieuwe kapsel eruit?", but it sounds a bit clunky. In Dutch, prepositional phrases starting with words like met (with) or in (in) are frequently pushed past the separable prefix to the very end of the sentence. Placing eruit before the extra information is standard here.

Question 3

Why is it dit nieuwe kapsel and not deze nieuw kapsel?

Accepted Answer

The word for hairstyle is a het word (het kapsel). For het words, the word for "this" is always dit, not deze. Additionally, when a het word is preceded by a specific pointer like het, dit, or dat, the adjective before it must get an -e added to the end, which is why we use nieuwe.

Question 4

Does the er in this sentence mean "there" or refer to a location?

Accepted Answer

No, this is what we call an intrinsic er. It does not point to a location or replace a preposition like it does in other grammar structures. Some verbs, like eruitzien (to look like) or ertoe doen (to matter), simply have er permanently built into their structure. You just have to learn the er as a mandatory part of the vocabulary word.

Hoe zie ik eruit met dit nieuwe kapsel?

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