Learn Hardcore Dutch: Het ongeluk zag er lelijk uit, maar niemand raakte gewond. - The accident looked ugly, but nobody was injured.

Er here is part of the separable verb eruitzien (to look, to appear). In the past tense you split it: zag … eruit, with er immediately after the finite verb. You cannot drop er, because without it lelijk uitzien would not mean “to look ugly” in the same way; the verb would lose its particle and sound incomplete.

Why is the verb eruitzien split as zag … uit instead of staying together?

Dutch has many separable verbs—verbs that consist of a base (zien) plus a particle (eruit). In main clauses the finite verb (here zag) appears in second position, and the particle (uit) goes to the end of the clause. That’s why you get Het ongeluk zag er lelijk uit.

Why is zag used here instead of a perfect tense like heeft gezien?

In narrative or descriptive contexts, Dutch often uses the simple past (imperfectum) to describe single events or how something looked at that moment. The perfect (heeft gezien) would shift the focus to the act of seeing rather than the state or appearance of the accident.

Why is raakte gewond used instead of werd gewond or kwam gewond?

Both raakte gewond and werd gewond are possible, but raakte gewond is more idiomatic for “got injured.” Komen + participle (e.g. kwam gewond) is less common in Dutch than in English (“came injured” isn’t used). Werden emphasises the change of state, while raken emphasises the event happening to someone.

Could we say niemand is gewond geraakt instead of niemand raakte gewond?

Yes. Niemand is gewond geraakt uses the perfect tense of gewond raken, which is perfectly correct and perhaps more common in spoken Dutch today. Niemand raakte gewond (simple past) is slightly more formal or literary but still very natural.

Why doesn’t the sentence use niet after raakte gewond to negate it?

Because niemand (“nobody”) is already a negative pronoun. In Dutch you avoid double negation, so niemand raakte niet gewond would be incorrect. Niemand raakte gewond alone means “Nobody got hurt.”

Why is the article het used with ongeluk instead of de?

Nouns in Dutch are either de-words (common gender) or het-words (neuter). Ongeluk is neuter, so it takes het. Unfortunately there’s no simple rule for every noun, so it’s best to learn the article together with the word.

Can lelijk be used only for people or also for things like accidents?

You can use lelijk for anything that “looks bad” or unpleasant: a person, an object, a situation, or an accident. Here lelijk uitzien means that the accident looked quite serious or ugly, although luckily no one was hurt.