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Ik zie helemaal niets, absoluut geen teken van beweging.

Ik zie helemaal niets, absoluut geen teken van beweging.
I see nothing at all, absolutely no sign of movement.
From Lesson 265:Amplified negation (helemaal niet, helemaal niets)·Dutch

Questions & Answers about Ik zie helemaal niets, absoluut geen teken van beweging.

Why does the sentence use helemaal niets instead of helemaal niet?
Because you are saying you see "nothing at all." Helemaal niets translates to "nothing at all" and acts as the object of what you are looking at. If you used helemaal niet (not at all), the sentence Ik zie helemaal niet would mean "I don't see at all" or "I am completely blind."
Why do we use geen before teken instead of niet?
This is a quick reminder of an earlier rule: you use geen to negate a noun that is indefinite. Because you are essentially negating "a sign" (een teken), you must use geen teken (no sign) rather than niet een teken.
Does absoluut geen work the same way as helemaal niets?
Yes, it is another excellent way to amplify a negation in Dutch! While helemaal (completely/at all) is used in this lesson to amplify niet or niets, you can use absoluut (absolutely) to strongly amplify geen, meaning "absolutely no" or "no [noun] whatsoever."
How is the noun beweging formed from a verb?
It comes from the verb bewegen (to move). Just like in English where you might add "-ment" to a verb, Dutch frequently adds the suffix -ing to a verb stem to create a noun. Here, it turns "to move" into "movement."

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