Questions & Answers about Het enige was het slechte weer.
Why does the Dutch sentence say Het enige instead of Het enige ding for "The only thing"?
In Dutch, you do not need to add a word for "thing" when talking about abstract concepts. You can just take the adjective enig (only), add an -e, and put het in front of it. Het enige perfectly translates to "the only thing".
If I want to say "the only one" about a person, do I still use Het enige?
No. When referring to people or de-words, you use de enige (the only one). You use het enige when referring to abstract things or het-words.
I often hear Dutch people say het enigste. Is that the same as het enige?
You will definitely hear het enigste in casual speech to mean "the only thing", but it is technically incorrect! Enig also means "cute" or "adorable", so grammatically, het enigste actually means "the cutest thing". It is much safer to learn and use het enige.
Why does slechte get an -e at the end if weer is a het-word?
Adjectives in front of a het-word only drop the -e if they follow een (a/an) or have no article at all (for example: slecht weer). Because this sentence uses the definite article het (the), the adjective slecht must take an -e ending.
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