Kleine Woorden, episode 3: naar
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EN: Kleine woorden, episode three. One little Dutch word that does a lot of jobs: 'naar'. Four letters, spelled:
NL: n. a. a. r.
EN: 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.
EN: 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.
NL: Ik ga naar huis.
EN: I'm going home.
NL: Wij gaan naar Amsterdam.
EN: We're going to Amsterdam.
NL: Hij loopt naar buiten.
EN: He's walking outside. Buiten = outside.
NL: Naar het station.
EN: To the station. The destination - station - sits on the right. Standard direction usage.
EN: 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.
NL: Hij komt naar mij toe.
EN: 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.
NL: Wij gaan naar het strand toe.
EN: We're going to the beach. The trailing toe is optional but very natural in spoken Dutch.
EN: 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.
NL: Kijken naar.
EN: To look at, or to watch.
NL: We kijken naar een film.
EN: We're watching a movie.
NL: Luisteren naar.
EN: To listen to.
NL: Ik luister naar muziek.
EN: I'm listening to music.
NL: Zoeken naar.
EN: To search for.
NL: Hij zoekt naar zijn sleutels.
EN: He's looking for his keys.
NL: Vragen naar.
EN: To ask about, or to ask after.
NL: Ze vroeg naar je.
EN: She asked after you.
NL: Verlangen naar.
EN: To long for.
NL: Ik verlang naar de zomer.
EN: I long for summer.
EN: 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.
EN: Naar also handles 'after' in the named-after sense. Pair it with the verb 'vernoemen' (to name).
NL: Hij is vernoemd naar zijn opa.
EN: He's named after his grandpa. The source - opa - follows naar.
EN: 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.
NL: Naar mijn mening.
EN: In my opinion. Slightly more formal than 'volgens mij'.
NL: Naar wens.
EN: As desired. You'll see this on restaurant menus and order forms.
NL: Naar verluidt.
EN: Reportedly - literally 'according to report'. Very newspaper, very formal.
NL: Naarmate.
EN: As, or in proportion as. A conjunction - that's a word that connects clauses. Example:
NL: Naarmate de dag vorderde.
EN: As the day wore on. The 'mate' tacked on the end turns the preposition into a connector.
EN: 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'.
NL: Een naar gevoel.
EN: A nasty feeling. Gevoel = feeling.
NL: Ik voel me naar.
EN: I feel rotten. I feel unwell.
NL: Wat naar voor je!
EN: How awful for you! Stock sympathy line. You'll hear it whenever someone tells you bad news.
NL: Een nare droom.
EN: 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'.
EN: 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.
EN: Today's Brueghel proverb.
NL: Een aal bij de staart hebben.
NL: Een aal bij de staart hebben.
EN: Literally: to have an eel by the tail. Meaning: to be wrestling with something slippery, hard to hold onto. Example:
NL: Met dat nieuwe project heeft hij echt een aal bij de staart.
EN: With that new project, he's really got hold of a slippery situation.
NL: Fijne avond nog!