# het hebben over iets



## killerbees

I'm not sure if 'hebben het over' is the correct expression, but it seems to be the only logical result after parsing the sentence:

_Ja, daar had hij het over. Maar hij zei het achteloos_.

I assume it means 'to talk about' or 'to mention', but I'm not sure. Dutch is proving to be a nightmare of prepositional idioms [though I suppose the same can be said of English ]


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## Brownpaperbag

killerbees said:


> I assume it means 'to talk about' or 'to mention'.]


 
exactly


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## HKK

killerbees said:


> I'm not sure if 'hebben het over' is the correct expression, but it seems to be the only logical result after parsing the sentence:
> 
> _Ja, daar had hij het over._



You've got the meaning right, but the generic form of the expression is "het hebben over (iets)" or "het over iets hebben" as in the thread title.

Your sentence has the verb and subject switched because the object "dat" was put up front: 
Ja, over dat had hij het. -> Ja, daarover had hij het / Ja, daar had hij het over.
I believe the first possibility is actually preferred but the "split daar-x" forms occur a lot too. Just like ending a sentence with a preposition in English


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## killerbees

A big thanks to you both!



HKK said:


> Ja, daar had hij het over.



HKK, that was exactly the problem I was having. The only other option I had was overhebben, which didn't seem to make any sense in the context. But I couldn't figure out why 'over' wasn't taking an object because I didn't know you could separate prepositional adverbs with the finite verb in between [my background in German makes daar- compound splitting a real hurdle for me]. Thus, I was expecting:



HKK said:


> Ja, daarover had hij het


 or _Ja, hij had daar het over.
_ 
So, problem solved on two counts.


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## HKK

killerbees said:


> or _Ja, hij had daar het over._



Ja, hij had het daarover.
That would be the sentence without emphasis on _dat/that_.

Btw, you're very welcome.


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## elroy

killerbees said:


> [my background in German makes daar- compound splitting a real hurdle for me].


 You can do the same thing in (colloquial) German, though. 

So, you can say, for example, "Dafür bezahle ich gerne" or "Da bezahle ich gerne für."  In my experience, though, splitting "daar" composites in Dutch is more common than splitting "da" composites in German.



> or _Ja, hij had daar het over._


 That wouldn't work, because you can't put "daar" between "had" and "het."


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## persiandisciple

"Daar had hij het over" also translates as "That's what he meant" (Cfr "Dat is wat hij bedoelde")
het hebben over (iets ) -> to mean, mention, discuss, talk about (sth)

E.g.

We zullen het er nog wel over hebben.
-> We'll discuss it later.

Daarover heb ik het niet.
-> That's not what I'm talking about.

We zullen het er niet over hebben.
-> We won't mention it.

Heb je het daarover?
-> Is that what you mean?


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## ThomasK

Great (little) list. I'd still say that the "basic" meaning is "talk/speak (about)", but it is very interesting for me as an NT2 teacher to see the various more specific meanings split up. Thanks. Looking forward to other contributions!


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## eno2

ThomasK said:


> Great (little) list.


It is.



> I'd still say that the "basic" meaning is "talk/speak (about)"


,It is. Some of his nuances one could replace with "talk about" indeed.


> but it is very interesting for me as an* NT2* teacher to see the various more specific meanings split up. Thanks. Looking forward to other contributions!



NT2?




> We zullen het er _*nog*_ wel over hebben.
> -> We'll discuss it later.


We'll talk about it later
Maar ik moet zeggen dat de Nederlandse zin, in tegenstelling tot de Engelse vertaling, met zijn "nog", sterk suggereert dat we het er al over hadden of bezig waren met het er over te hebben. "Nog" in Van Dale: om een herhaling aan te duiden= opnieuw, daarenboven.  Alhoewel niet noodzakelijk, want "nog"  kan ook louter op de toekomst gericht zijn. Van Dale: in een enigszins verre toekomst.  We weten het dus niet. Nog is dubbelzinnig (afijn, nog  heeft 12 afzonderlijk gedefinieerde betekenissen).




> We zullen het er niet over hebben.
> -> We won't mention it.


We won't talk about it.


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## ThomasK

NT2 (Dutch as a second/ foreign language, NL tweede taal) 

"Nog": het lijken mij twee verschillende betekenissen. Zonder: "we doen het, wees gerust". "Nog": lichtjes informeel, sussend, in de trant van "Niet nu, jongen/ meisje, even wachten, het komt nog, wees gerust". 

"We won't mention it" is zeker een optie. Het is een variant van het bredere "We won't talk about it" in mijn ogen.


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