Kleine woorden, episode three. One little Dutch word that does a lot of jobs: 'naar'. Four letters, spelled:
n. a. a. r. — Naar is a workhorse.
You already know its core meaning - direction, 'to' or 'toward' - but it sprawls into several other roles, plus one trap: there's a second word spelled exactly the same that's completely unrelated. Let's walk through them.
Direction first. Any verb of motion - a verb meaning movement, like to go, to walk, to drive - points at a destination with naar. The preposition - that's the little word that links a noun to the rest of the sentence - sits between the verb and the destination.
Ik ga naar huis. — I'm going home.
Wij gaan naar Amsterdam. — We're going to Amsterdam.
Hij loopt naar buiten. — He's walking outside.
Buiten = outside.
Naar het station. — To the station.
The destination - station - sits on the right. Standard direction usage.
Now a Dutch flourish. Naar can be bookended with a trailing 'toe' - spelled t-o-e - especially when the destination is a person, or when you want to emphasize the going-toward.
Hij komt naar mij toe. — He's coming over to me.
Notice the naar-mij-toe sandwich - the destination wrapped by both naar at the front and toe at the back.
Wij gaan naar het strand toe. — We're going to the beach.
The trailing toe is optional but very natural in spoken Dutch.
Now the big one for learners. A whole class of Dutch verbs always pairs with naar - where English uses 'at', 'to', 'for', or 'about'. There's no rule to predict which English preposition maps onto naar - you just learn the verb-plus-naar as a single unit, like a phrasal compound. Here are the essentials.
Kijken naar. — To look at, or to watch.
We kijken naar een film. — We're watching a movie.
Luisteren naar. — To listen to.
Ik luister naar muziek. — I'm listening to music.
Zoeken naar. — To search for.
Hij zoekt naar zijn sleutels. — He's looking for his keys.
Vragen naar. — To ask about, or to ask after.
Ze vroeg naar je. — She asked after you.
Verlangen naar. — To long for.
Ik verlang naar de zomer. — I long for summer.
In all of these, naar has bleached out its direction meaning. It's now just grammatical glue - the verb's required partner. But if you squint, there's still a faint ghost of direction. Looking is aimed at the film. Longing is pointed at the summer. Searching is directed at the keys. A sense or a desire is being pointed at a target.
Naar also handles 'after' in the named-after sense. Pair it with the verb 'vernoemen' (to name).
Hij is vernoemd naar zijn opa. — He's named after his grandpa.
The source - opa - follows naar.
Now some fixed adverbial phrases - chunks where naar means something close to 'according to' or 'by'. These are mostly formal, useful in writing and official contexts.
Naar mijn mening. — In my opinion.
Slightly more formal than 'volgens mij'.
Naar wens. — As desired.
You'll see this on restaurant menus and order forms.
Naar verluidt. — Reportedly - literally 'according to report'.
Very newspaper, very formal.
Naarmate. — As, or in proportion as.
A conjunction - that's a word that connects clauses. Example:
Naarmate de dag vorderde. — As the day wore on.
The 'mate' tacked on the end turns the preposition into a connector.
Now the trap. There's a second word spelled exactly 'naar' - same four letters - that's completely unrelated. A homonym - two words sharing a spelling with no shared meaning. This naar is an adjective meaning 'nasty', 'unpleasant', 'horrible'.
Een naar gevoel. — A nasty feeling.
Gevoel = feeling.
Ik voel me naar. — I feel rotten.
I feel unwell.
Wat naar voor je! — How awful for you! Stock sympathy line.
You'll hear it whenever someone tells you bad news.
Een nare droom. — A bad dream.
When the adjective takes an ending - because it sits in front of a singular noun with the article 'een' - it becomes 'nare'.
How do you tell them apart? Context. The preposition leans on a destination. Naar huis. Naar de dokter. The adjective sits in front of or describes a noun. Een nare dokter is a nasty doctor. Naar de dokter is to the doctor. Same spelling, opposite use. The grammar around it sorts them out.
Today's Brueghel proverb.
Een aal bij de staart hebben.
Een aal bij de staart hebben. — Literally: to have an eel by the tail.
Meaning: to be wrestling with something slippery, hard to hold onto. Example:
Met dat nieuwe project heeft hij echt een aal bij de staart.
With that new project, he's really got hold of a slippery situation.
Fijne avond nog!
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