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- "Where are you going?"
"Where are you going?"
Translation:Waar gaan jullie naartoe?
41 Comments
I believe that it's not good Dutch to drop the naartoe, however you can use heen in its place
We weren't far...
(Singular you) Waar ga je naartoe? = Where are you going? (Where are you going to/towards?)
(Plural you) Waar gaan jullie naartoe? = Where are you going?
Hope it helps
You could also say "waar ga je heen" (singular) or "waar gaan jullie heen" (plural)
585
Not really. It's still not clear what the "naartoe" adds or what the logic behind its use might be. I've seen sentences like "Zij gaat naar de universitat", but I don't know when or why "gaat" and "gaan" are sometimes sufficient, and when or why they aren't.
What is the difference between 'naartoe' and 'heen'?
Waar gaan jullie heen? Or waar gaan jullie naartoe?
Well, actually, even when there's no difference in meaning, there's a grammatical difference:
• heen is an adverb modifying the verb gaan in this case, and conveying the idea of movement or direction. It means 'away, gone...' (See the link on my other post)
• naartoe is a kind of adposition, a circumposition (the other two types being prepositions and postpositions), which means that it's formed by a preposition (naar) and a postposition (toe) that 'enclose' or 'surround' the Subject of the sentence (the 'doer', 'senser', 'experiencer', 'sayer', etc.).
In this particular case, naartoe is also giving the idea of movement or direction (just as when using the adverb heen), but, in grammatical terms, while we can answer We gaan naar het park (toe) (more natural without toe... And even more if we just answer Naar het park), we cannot re-use/recycle heen in our answer.
More info? Follow the following links:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition
https://m.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-circumposition.htm
http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/circumposition
Hope this helps.
it gives the idea of direction and movement, i guess, but i'm not a native speaker
I'm not a native speaker either, but you're right (see my comment below).
Cheers!
It's an adverb that means 'away, gone, on the way there'. https://www.vandale.nl/gratis-woordenboek/nederlands-engels/vertaling/Heen#.W-h_dMYaU0M
Hope this helps.
Because we don't know where we're going yet. "er" would mean that we have an idea of where we're going. Here is an example of how this exchange could go: 1- Waar gaan jullie naartoe? 2-Wij gaan naar onze vriend toe. 3- Wanneer gaan jullie ernaartoe? 4- Wij gaan er nu naartoe!
1 - So in the first sentence, we don't know where you (and your group of friends) are going, so there's no "er". 2 - In the second sentence, you tell us where you are going : you're going toward your friend. As you've noticed, naartoe is actually two words put together : naar (which you could translate to "to") and toe (which brings the element of movement to the "to"). When you want to tell where you're going with more than just "here" or "there", you will use "naar" like you normally do, and then add "toe" at the end : ik ga naar de school toe, ik ga naar hem toe.... 3 - In the third sentence, the person asking now KNOWS where you are going/what you're going towards so they can use "er" connected to "naartoe". ernaartoe stands for "naar jullie vriend toe" in that sentence. 4 - In that fourth sentence, you can find an example about why the order of the words in a Dutch sentence matters quite a lot : in a normal affirmative sentence, "er" will go after the verb. BUT that goes ONLY for "er". If other complements (like "nu" in this sentence) or a negation are also in the sentence, it sends the "naartoe" away from the "er".
The order of words in Dutch can be a complex subject, here is an excellent explanation about it : http://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=WordOrder.00 .
Could someone help me understand the difference in usage between 'naartoe' and 'naar' in a sentence? For example:
Ik ga naar mijn huis. Ik ga naar mijn huis toe.
Does one indicate going 'to' something and the other 'toward' something? I remember seeing that somewhere but am a bit confused.
Normally, both can be used interchangeably, but if we examine it closer:
• Ik ga naar mijn huis
(here adding mijn places emphasis on the fact that it's my house... To say 'go home' you'd say naar huis)
In this case you're indicating that you're going to your place, that's your destination.
• Ik ga naar mijn huis toe
You're going towards your place, but maybe that's not your destination, you may continue walking/cycling/driving and go visiting a friend who lives past your place.
But, as I said before, many speakers just use both interchangeably in such a context.
Hope this helps.
- 585
"Where are you going?" gets translated as "Waar gaan jullie naartoe?"
Why is this the primary interpretation of this sentence? Insofar as I understand your explanation, this is ok if you know that there is an ultimate destination, but are asking for the direction of my movement. Example: When I'm driving towards Fresno from Northern California, my ultimate destination is Fresno, but for most of the route I'm also driving towards Los Angeles. Here it looks like the interlocutor wants to know the destination, not in whether I'm going towards somewhere else along the way. Therefore shouldn't "Where are you going" be translated as "Waar gaan jullie naar"? If so, why not?
Valid and logic question but unfortunately "Waar gaan jullie naar?" doesn't work as in questions "-toe" is mandatory when a movement to a particular direction is involved. Questions only have 2 options: Waar & waar naartoe/heen. Waar ben je? (static) vs. Waar ga je naartoe / Waar ga je heen? (dynamic). In affirmative clauses "-toe" can be skipped when talking about a specific destination. Maybe because questions by definition don't yet have the specific information available? Hard to say.
- 585
Ok, but what is being omitted, that makes the sentence incomplete. In this case it looks like a meaningless distinction.
I think this is better Dutch. I speak Afrikaans (which is very close to Dutch) and that's basically how we would say it.
Hi Graham,
Please remember that Afrikaans and Dutch, even if closely related, are two different languages with different grammar, spelling, semantics and phonology.
What works in one of them doesn't necessarily work on the other, just as in this case.
Cheers!
Nope, sorry, that's ungrammatical.
Please read my answer to Sanjay's question above, and follow the links I shared there.
Cheers!
When you mouse over the words in this sentence it has nothing about heen or naartoe. It only show "waar, duren, ben or bent, u jullie or jij and aan het gaan, gaan or gaat. I don't understand this.
Since "where are you going" is a sentence in present continuous, i though it would also be ok to translate it as "waar ben je naartoe aan het gaan?", but this wasn't accepted.
While it is grammatically correct, it sounds odd. I checked with my partner, who is a native speaker, and the answer was that nobody would say it like that.
Hope this helps.
- 1407
So why would "waar jullie naartoe" is not accepted? I though gaan is supefluous in these cases
Nope, you need to have a verb, it's the heart of the sentence (and just as a human would, your sentence will die without a heart).
You're getting confused with waar wil je naartoe?, where you omit gaan because it's a non-finite verb that is somehow already 'encoded' in naartoe. Note that you do not omit the finite/conjugated verb (wil).
Hope this helps.
Why isn't "waar gaat je naartoe" accepted? The English version has no indication of plural.
'Je gaat' but 'ga je' If you use je/jij its true tgat you need to use tge verb form 'gaat' after it. But tgere is an other rule: if the verb is before the je/jij (second word order), you must use 'ga' insted of gaat. Always. Why? Just because.. this is Dutch:)
- 585
What is the difference between "Waar gaan jullie" and "Waar gaan jullie naartoe"? to my eye, they both seem to say "Where are you going?", and so it looks like the "naartoe" is superfluous.
Read the other comments, I was asking for the same a long time ago. "Naartoe" or "heen" is needed for some reason, without one of them the sentence is incomplete.
- 585
Thanks. I just took another look, and I think that one of Mental Pinball's posts really helped, and that I will get it down fairly shortly. Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in a few days.
