By A2 you can describe things — mooi (nice), duur (expensive), moe (tired) — and now you want to turn the volume up or down: very nice, a bit expensive, not very tired. This page gives you the small set of everyday dials Dutch speakers actually use in conversation, and steers you away from the textbook word that makes you sound stiff. For the fuller scale of intensifiers and where each one sits, see the intensifier scale; here we drill the casual core.
"Very": heel and erg
The everyday Dutch for "very" is heel or erg. Both go directly in front of the adjective, and in normal speech they are interchangeable for turning the dial up.
Het is heel mooi.
It's very nice. 'heel' right before the adjective 'mooi'.
Ik ben erg moe.
I'm very tired. 'erg' before 'moe' — just as natural as 'heel moe'.
De koffie is heel lekker.
The coffee is very nice/tasty. 'heel' + adjective.
Het was erg druk in de stad.
It was very busy in town. 'erg' before 'druk'.
There is a subtle flavour difference worth knowing: erg can lean slightly toward the negative or intense end (it's related to "bad"), so it pairs especially comfortably with unwelcome things — erg moe, erg druk, erg duur — while heel is the all-purpose, neutral booster. But you will not be wrong using either; native speakers swap them freely.
Turning it down: een beetje
To say "a bit" or "a little" — softening rather than boosting — use een beetje in front of the adjective. It's the gentle downtoner, perfect for being polite or tentative.
Ik ben een beetje moe.
I'm a bit tired. 'een beetje' softens 'moe'.
Het is een beetje duur.
It's a bit expensive. A polite, understated complaint.
De soep is een beetje koud.
The soup is a little cold. 'een beetje' before 'koud'.
"Not very": niet zo
Here is the one that feels least like English. To say something is "not very" — not very nice, not very expensive — Dutch doesn't say niet heel in casual speech; the natural phrase is niet zo (literally "not so"). It's the everyday way to gently downgrade something.
Het is niet zo duur.
It's not very expensive. 'niet zo' is the natural 'not very'.
De film was niet zo goed.
The film wasn't very good. 'niet zo goed' — softer and more idiomatic than 'niet heel goed'.
Ik voel me niet zo lekker.
I'm not feeling so well. 'niet zo lekker' is the standard way to say you feel a bit off.
Het weer is vandaag niet zo mooi.
The weather isn't very nice today. 'niet zo' downgrades 'mooi'.
That last pattern — Ik voel me niet zo lekker — is one of the most useful sentences in everyday Dutch for saying you're under the weather. Bank it whole.
One more everyday dial: nogal
Sitting between een beetje and heel is nogal — "rather" or "quite/fairly." It's the casual middle setting: stronger than een beetje, softer than heel, and very common in spoken Dutch for a slightly understated comment. Like the others, it goes straight in front of the adjective.
Het was nogal druk.
It was rather busy. 'nogal' = quite/fairly, a notch below 'erg druk'.
Die film is nogal lang.
That film is rather long. A mild, understated remark.
Het is nogal duur, vind ik.
It's quite expensive, I think. 'nogal' softens the judgement a little.
So your everyday degree dials, from low to high, run: een beetje (a bit) → nogal (rather) → heel / erg (very). Three settings cover almost everything you'll want to say at A2, and all three sit in the same spot — right before the adjective.
A quick note: when heel takes an ending
Most of the time heel is just heel — heel mooi, heel duur. But there is one situation where you'll see and hear it inflected to hele. When heel sits in front of an adjective that itself has an ending (the adjective before a noun in a de-word phrase), heel often picks up the same -e ending by attraction:
Het is een hele mooie dag.
It's a really nice day. Before the inflected adjective 'mooie' (de-word 'dag'), 'heel' becomes 'hele'.
Dat is een hele goede vraag.
That's a really good question. 'hele goede' — both words carry the -e ending.
Don't over-think this at A2: when heel stands alone before an adjective in a sentence like Het is heel mooi, it stays heel. The hele form shows up specifically inside a noun phrase (een hele mooie dag). Recognise it now; you'll produce it reliably later.
Common Mistakes
❌ Het is zeer mooi.
Not wrong, but too formal for casual speech — 'zeer' sounds bookish in conversation.
✅ Het is heel mooi.
It's very nice. 'heel' is the everyday choice.
❌ Het is niet heel duur.
Understandable, but not how Dutch speakers say it — the idiomatic 'not very' is 'niet zo'.
✅ Het is niet zo duur.
It's not very expensive. 'niet zo' is the natural phrase.
❌ Ik ben moe heel.
Incorrect — the intensifier goes before the adjective, not after it.
✅ Ik ben heel moe.
I'm very tired. 'heel' precedes 'moe'.
❌ Ik ben beetje moe.
Incorrect — the downtoner is 'een beetje', with 'een'.
✅ Ik ben een beetje moe.
I'm a bit tired. The full phrase is 'een beetje'.
Key Takeaways
- The casual "very" is heel or erg, placed directly before the adjective; erg leans slightly toward unwelcome things, heel is all-purpose.
- zeer is correct but formal — avoid it in everyday conversation.
- een beetje turns the dial down to "a bit / a little."
- "Not very" is niet zo (niet zo duur, niet zo lekker), not niet heel.
- heel stays heel on its own (heel mooi), but becomes hele when it precedes an inflected adjective in a noun phrase (een hele mooie dag).
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Intensifying Adjectives: Heel, Erg, Zeer, HartstikkeA2 — The words that turn up or turn down an adjective — heel/erg/zeer for 'very' (with sharply different registers), downtoners like nogal and vrij for 'fairly', and colloquial boosters like hartstikke — plus the heel/hele puzzle: heel optionally inflects before an attributive adjective.
- The Intensifier Scale: Heel, Erg, Zeer, OntzettendB1 — The Dutch degree cline from weak to strong — een beetje, tamelijk, heel and erg, the formal zeer, the strong ontzettend and enorm, the very informal hartstikke, and the excessive veel te. How to pick the right rung for the register you're in, and why 'zeer' sounds stiff in everyday speech.
- Dutch Adverbs: OverviewA2 — The big picture for the Adverbs group: the main types (manner, time, place, degree, and sentence/modal adverbs); the headline fact that Dutch adverbs never inflect — no -e ending, unlike attributive adjectives; that the plain adjective IS the manner adverb (no -ly to add); and the time–manner–place ordering, which is the exact reverse of English's manner–place–time.