Prepositions in combinations with verbs and nouns in Dutch

• Nouns in combination with prepositions
• Verbs in combination with a (fixed) preposition
• Links

Nouns in combination with prepositions

'Op' or 'in' de universiteit/school, etc.

I have been searching for some examples on Google, but I don't agree with all of them. I haven't been able to find or think of a fixed rule.

Examples with op:

• Lesgeven op de universiteit (teach at the ...);
• Studeren op de universiteit (study at the ...);
• Werken op de universiteit (work at the ...);
• Opleidingen op de universiteit (courses at the ...).

I think lesgeven aan de universiteit would perhaps be even better.
The same holds for studeren.
Werken aan is more or less a fixed combination, which means to work on some (project), so werken aan de universiteit sounds like you're building it.
In the last case I prefer op, although in the examples below the last one uses in in a similar situation.

Examples with in:

• Een ontploffing in de universiteit (an explosion in the ...);
• Integreren in de universiteit (integrate in the ...);
• Eetgelegenheden in de universiteit (places where you can eat in the ...);
• Cursus Gronings in de universiteit (course in the Groninger dialect at the ...).

If you used op in the first example I tend to think it happened on top of the roof.
I think integreren in is a fixed combination.
In the 3rd example I think in is the only option, too.

Verbs in combination with a (fixed) preposition

There are a lot of fixed verb-preposition combinations, and I don't think you can deduct the preposition from a rule. You just have to memorize them. I think it's the same in English.

I found a list of verb-preposition combinations on the Internet, with translations in English.

But it's far from complete. The 2 examples we discussed aren't in it yet (but I've reported them):

• besteden aan (spend on);
• behoefte hebben aan (need).

Links