Breakdown of Het is hier griezelig, want er loopt helemaal niemand buiten.
zijn
to be
hier
here
lopen
to walk
buiten
outside
Questions & Answers about Het is hier griezelig, want er loopt helemaal niemand buiten.
How does helemaal niemand change the meaning compared to just using niemand?
Adding helemaal (which usually means "entirely" or "completely") before a negative word makes the negation much stronger. While niemand just means "nobody", helemaal niemand translates to "absolutely nobody" or "no one at all". It emphasizes exactly how empty and creepy it is outside.
Could I drop the word er and just say want helemaal niemand loopt buiten?
It is better not to. Dutch strongly prefers using the word er (there) when the subject of a sentence is indefinite—meaning an unspecified person or thing, like "someone", "a dog", or niemand (nobody). Saying want er loopt helemaal niemand buiten sounds much more natural to a native speaker than dropping the er.
Why doesn't the verb loopt go to the very end of the sentence here? Doesn't a word like "because" change the word order?
It depends on which word for "because" you use! Want is a coordinating conjunction, which means it joins two normal main clauses without changing the word order. That is why the verb stays in the second position (want er loopt...). If you had used omdat, the verb would have been pushed to the end: ...omdat er helemaal niemand buiten loopt.
The English translation says "is walking". Why isn't the Dutch continuous form (is aan het lopen) used here?