A pronominal adverb is a type of adverb occurring in a number of Germanic languages, formed in replacement of a preposition and a pronoun by turning the former into a prepositional adverb and the latter into a locative adverb, and finally joining them in reverse order.
For example:
In modern English, pronominal adverbs are most commonly encountered in literary registers or in legal usage. They are used frequently by lawyers and drafters of legal documents primarily as a way of avoiding the repetition of names of things in the document (or sometimes as a self-reference to the document itself). For this reason, pronominal adverbs are often seen as a type of legal jargon.
In Dutch, pronominal adverbs are very common and are almost mandatory in many situations; neglecting to use them often makes a phrase sound unnatural to native speakers. Dutch maintains a three-way distinction of reference in its demonstrative pronouns, with pronouns for things close by and far away, and a third pronoun that is unspecific for distance. This distinction is faithfully reflected in the use of pronominal adverbs, and other pronouns also often have a corresponding adverbial form.[2]
| Pronoun | Pronoun + "met" | Meaning | Adverb | Adverb + "met" | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dat | met dat | with that | daar | daarmee | therewith | |
| dit | met dit | with this | hier | hiermee | herewith | |
| het | met het (very rare) | with it | er | ermee | therewith (unspecific) | |
| wat | met wat | with what | waar | waarmee | wherewith | |
| alles | met alles | with everything | overal | overal mee | everywhere with | |
| iets | met iets | with something | ergens | ergens mee | somewhere with | |
| niets | met niets | with nothing | nergens | nergens mee | nowhere with |