Breakdown of Je moet op de nieuwkomer rekenen, gelukkig reken ik op hem.
ik
I
moeten
to have to, must
hem
him
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
Questions & Answers about Je moet op de nieuwkomer rekenen, gelukkig reken ik op hem.
Why do we use op hem instead of the pronominal adverb erop in this sentence?
Because de nieuwkomer is a person. In Dutch, you cannot use er plus a preposition (like erop) to refer to people. For human beings, you are required to use the preposition followed by a regular personal pronoun, making op hem mandatory here.
If we were talking about counting on a new system instead of a newcomer, how would the second clause change?
You would have to use a pronominal adverb because a system is inanimate. The sentence would become gelukkig reken ik erop. For non-humans, you cannot use a preposition followed by a pronoun like het or hem; instead, you must combine er with the preposition op.
Why is the word order reken ik instead of ik reken in the second part of the sentence?
The second clause starts with the adverb gelukkig (fortunately). Whenever a main clause begins with anything other than the subject, the verb and subject must invert to keep the conjugated verb in the second position. Therefore, ik reken becomes reken ik.
What is the exact function of op in relation to rekenen here?