Grammatica - loco

8
Pronouns
78
Ik weet het wel. Ik weet het niet.
I know. I don’t know.
Ik heb het gemoeten/gekund/gemogen.
I had to/was able to/was allowed to. (see 11.8.2)
8.1.2.5
Die as a referential pronoun
(a) The demonstrative die is very commonly used in Dutch as a substitute
for hij/hem, zij/haar and zij/hen/hun (i.e. it can replace all third
person pronouns, singular and plural) with varying connotations of
meaning. Except in questions, the clause always begins with die;
sometimes it is stressed and thus serves as an emphatic pronoun, and
in other cases it acts as an unemphatic pronoun:
Is Bob er nog niet? Nee, die komt niet. (unstressed) = hij
Isn’t Bob here yet? No, he’s not coming.
Ik weet het niet maar die weten het wel. (stressed) = zij (they)
I don’t know but they do.
Heb je Marie gesproken? Nee, die heb ik vandaag helemaal
niet gezien. (stressed or unstressed) = haar
Have you spoken to Marie? No, I haven’t seen her at all today.
(b) Notice that die appears in the list of object pronouns in 8.1 as the
stressed form of ze ‘them’ with reference to things; the emphatic
forms hen/hun can only refer to people and ze, which can be used
for people or things, is by definition unemphatic; when stressing
‘them’ referring to inanimate objects, one has no choice but to use
die:
Hebben jullie nu al de appels opgegeten die ik vanochtend pas
heb gekocht? Nee, díé hebben we niet kunnen vinden.
Have you already eaten all the apples I bought only this morning? No,
we weren’t able to find them.
(c) Die can also be a handy means of avoiding the difficulties caused by
pronominal substitution of hij/hem or het mentioned under 8.1.2.3
(d) and 8.1.2.4 (c):
Hij heeft zijn auto aan de kant van de weg laten staan want hij
wist dat die daar veilig zou staan.
He left his car on the side of the road because he knew that it would
be safe there.