Breakdown of We waren bang tijdens zo'n ongelofelijke orkaan.
zijn
to be
bang
scared
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
tijdens
during
Questions & Answers about We waren bang tijdens zo'n ongelofelijke orkaan.
Why do we use zo'n in this sentence instead of zulke?
Zo'n translates to "such a" and is used for singular, countable nouns like orkaan (hurricane). If we were talking about plural hurricanes ("such unbelievable hurricanes"), we would drop the "a" in English and use zulke in Dutch: zulke ongelofelijke orkanen.
Why does the adjective ongelofelijke get an -e at the end after zo'n?
The word zo'n is a contraction of zo (such) and een (a/an). Because it contains een, it follows the normal adjective rules for een. Since orkaan is a de-word (de orkaan), the adjective gets an -e added to it. If it were a het-word, there would be no -e.
I sometimes see this adjective written as ongelooflijke. Are both spellings correct?
Yes, both ongelofelijke and ongelooflijke are correct and mean the exact same thing! Adding the extra -e- in the middle just makes it easier to pronounce by adding a soft syllable. Notice that when you add that extra -e-, the double oo drops to a single o to keep the vowel sound long.
If I wanted to say "We were afraid such a hurricane", would I still use ?