Questions & Answers about Wij zien helemaal niets wat griezelig is.
What is the difference between saying niets and helemaal niets in this sentence?
Niets just means "nothing". Adding helemaal (which literally means "completely" or "entirely") amplifies the negative. Helemaal niets translates to "nothing at all" or "absolutely nothing", making the statement much stronger.
Why is wat used to mean "that" here instead of dat or die?
In Dutch, when you refer back to an indefinite word like niets (nothing), alles (everything), or iets (something), you must use wat as the connecting word. You cannot use dat or die after niets.
Why does the verb is go at the very end of the sentence?
The phrase wat griezelig is is a relative clause (a mini-sentence that describes the "nothing"). In Dutch, relative clauses follow subclause word order, which means the working verb gets pushed to the very end of that clause.
Could I use niks instead of niets here?
Yes! Niks is the more casual, spoken version of niets. In everyday conversation, you will very often hear Dutch speakers say helemaal niks (absolutely nothing).