Hij huilt er soms omdat hij erg emotioneel is.
He sometimes cries there because he is very emotional.
Breakdown of Hij huilt er soms omdat hij erg emotioneel is.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
erg
very / really
soms
sometimes
Questions & Answers about Hij huilt er soms omdat hij erg emotioneel is.
Why is er placed before soms in this sentence?
In the middle part of a Dutch sentence, the unstressed word er usually comes as early as possible. This means it is placed immediately after the finite verb (huilt) and before adverbs of time like soms.
Does er refer to a location here, and why don't we use daar?
Yes, here er refers to a place, meaning there. We use er instead of daar because the location is unstressed and likely already known from context. If you wanted to put special emphasis on exactly where he cries, you would use daar.
Why is the verb is at the very end of the sentence?
The word omdat introduces a subordinate clause. In a Dutch subordinate clause, the verbs are pushed to the very end, which is why is comes after erg emotioneel.
I learned that erg means terrible or bad. Why is it used here?
While erg can mean terrible as a standalone adjective, it is also one of the most common ways to say very when placed before another adjective, just like heel. Here, erg emotioneel simply means very emotional.