Breakdown of Er zijn veel consumenten, maar enkelen kopen niets.
zijn
to be
maar
but
veel
much / many / a lot of
kopen
to buy
er
there (existential)
niets
nothing
de consument
the consumer
enkele
a few, several
Questions & Answers about Er zijn veel consumenten, maar enkelen kopen niets.
Why does enkelen have an -n at the end instead of just being enkele?
When a quantifying word like enkele (a few), sommige (some), or andere (others) is used on its own as a pronoun AND refers to people, it gets an -n at the end. Here, enkelen refers back to consumenten (consumers), which are people, and it isn't followed by a noun, so it requires the -n.
Could I use sommigen instead of enkelen in this sentence?
Yes, you can. Grammatically, sommigen (some) follows the exact same rules as enkelen (a few) when referring to people. The difference is just the meaning. Enkelen emphasizes that it's only a small number out of the many consumers, while sommigen just neutrally means "some".
Why is the word order enkelen kopen after maar, shouldn't the verb come first?
The word maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it simply links two normal, independent clauses together without affecting the word order of the second clause. That is why you see the standard subject-verb order: enkelen (subject) followed by kopen (verb).
Why is the word for 'nothing' niets here instead of geen?
Niets is an independent pronoun that means "nothing" (or "not anything"). You use geen when you are negating a specific noun, meaning "no" or "not a" (like geen producten for "no products"). Because they are buying "nothing" in general, rather than negating a specific noun, you need the independent word niets.
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