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Questions & Answers about Dat is heel gewoon.
Why is heel used here instead of erg?
Both heel and erg mean "very" and are often interchangeable. However, heel is slightly more common in everyday speech, especially with neutral or positive words. You could say Dat is erg gewoon, but heel gewoon sounds more natural.
Does gewoon always mean "ordinary"?
Not always! While it means "ordinary" or "normal" here, Dutch speakers also use gewoon all the time as a little filler word to mean "just" or "simply." For example, if someone says Ik doe het gewoon, they mean "I am just doing it."
Why doesn't the word gewoon have an -e at the end here?
Because it comes after the verb is to describe the subject (Dat). In Dutch, adjectives never get an added -e when they are separated from the noun they describe. You only add the -e when the adjective comes right before a noun, like in een gewone dag (an ordinary day).
Could I use the word normaal instead of gewoon?
Yes! In Dutch, gewoon and normaal are very close in meaning and are often used to mean exactly the same thing. Gewoon feels a bit more like "common" or "everyday," while normaal strictly means "normal," but both work perfectly for this sentence.