Breakdown of Wij zijn het ermee eens dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken.
Questions & Answers about Wij zijn het ermee eens dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken.
Why does the sentence use both wij and we? Aren’t they the same word?
Yes. Wij and we both mean we.
The difference is mainly one of stress and emphasis:
- wij is the full form
- we is the reduced, unstressed form
So in:
Wij zijn het ermee eens dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken.
the first wij is a bit stronger or more deliberate, while we in the dat-clause is the normal unstressed form.
In many situations, you could also say:
We zijn het ermee eens dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken.
That sounds very natural too.
What does het ermee eens zijn mean as a whole?
Het ermee eens zijn is a fixed Dutch expression meaning:
- to agree with it
- to be in agreement about it
- to agree
So the core pattern is:
- het ergens mee eens zijn = to agree with something
Examples:
- Ik ben het ermee eens. = I agree with it.
- Ben je het daarmee eens? = Do you agree with that?
You should learn this as an idiomatic phrase, not word by word.
Why is het used here? It doesn’t seem to translate directly into English.
That’s a very common question. In het ermee eens zijn, the word het is part of the fixed idiom.
English just says I agree, but Dutch often says something closer to:
- Ik ben het eens / Ik ben het ermee eens
The het does not always have a neat one-word English equivalent. It functions as part of the structure of the expression.
So although it may feel unnecessary from an English point of view, in Dutch it is normal and expected in this phrase.
What exactly is ermee, and why not just met het?
Ermee is a pronominal adverb:
- er
- mee
This often replaces a combination like met dat, met iets, with it, with that, etc.
Dutch very often uses er + preposition instead of a separate pronoun after a preposition.
For example:
- Ik reken erop. = I’m counting on it.
- Hij praat erover. = He talks about it.
- Wij zijn het ermee eens. = We agree with it / about it.
So ermee is the normal Dutch way to say with it in this kind of sentence.
Does eens here mean once?
No. In this sentence, eens does not mean once.
In het ermee eens zijn, eens means something like:
- in agreement
- of one mind
So:
- Wij zijn het ermee eens = We agree with it
This is a fixed meaning of eens in this expression. It is different from:
- eens = once / one day / sometime
Context tells you which meaning is intended.
Why does the clause after dat end with vertrekken?
Because dat introduces a subordinate clause, and in Dutch subordinate clauses the conjugated verb usually goes to the end.
So:
- main clause: Wij zijn het ermee eens
- subordinate clause: dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken
That final part follows normal Dutch subordinate-clause word order:
- dat
- subject + other elements + verb at the end
Compare:
- We vertrekken morgen vroeg.
main clause - ... dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken.
subordinate clause
Is vertrekken here an infinitive or a conjugated verb?
It is a conjugated verb, not an infinitive.
This is confusing because in Dutch, the plural present tense often looks exactly the same as the infinitive.
For vertrekken:
- ik vertrek = I leave
- jij vertrekt = you leave
- wij vertrekken = we leave
So in:
... dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken
vertrekken is the present tense form for we, even though it looks like the dictionary form.
Why is there no extra word like to before vertrekken?
Because this is a full clause with a subject and a finite verb:
- dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken = that we leave tomorrow morning
Dutch uses te for an infinitive construction, but that is not what is happening here.
Compare:
- Wij hopen morgen vroeg te vertrekken.
= We hope to leave early tomorrow.
Here te vertrekken is an infinitive phrase.
But in your sentence:
- Wij zijn het ermee eens dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken.
the part after dat is a normal clause, so no te is needed.
Why is morgen vroeg placed before vertrekken?
Because in Dutch, time expressions often come before the final verb in a subordinate clause.
So in:
dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken
the order is:
- dat
- we
- morgen vroeg
- vertrekken
This is very natural Dutch word order.
You can think of it as:
- connector
- subject
- time information
- verb at the end
Morgen vroeg means tomorrow early or more naturally early tomorrow / tomorrow morning, early depending on context.
Could the sentence also start with We instead of Wij?
Yes, absolutely.
You can say:
We zijn het ermee eens dat we morgen vroeg vertrekken.
That is very natural everyday Dutch.
Using wij instead of we can sound:
- slightly more careful
- slightly more emphatic
- sometimes a bit more formal, depending on context
But both are correct.
Can the words in het ermee eens be rearranged?
Not freely. This is a fairly fixed expression, so learners should keep the basic combination together:
- het
- ermee
- eens
- zijn
In a normal main clause, you often see:
- Ik ben het ermee eens.
- Wij zijn het ermee eens.
Word order can change somewhat because Dutch moves verbs around, but the expression itself should stay recognizable. For a learner, it is safest to memorize it as a chunk:
het ermee eens zijn
That will help you produce correct sentences much more easily.
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