Breakdown of De straat is tamelijk donker en er is geen enkele voorbijganger.
zijn
to be
en
and
er
there (existential)
de straat
the street
donker
dark
tamelijk
quite / fairly
geen enkel
not a single / no ... whatsoever (also geen enkele)
de voorbijganger
the passer-by
Questions & Answers about De straat is tamelijk donker en er is geen enkele voorbijganger.
Why do we use geen enkele here instead of just geen?
Using geen by itself just means 'no' or 'not any' (er is geen voorbijganger = there is no passer-by). Adding enkele makes the negation much stronger and more emphatic, stressing that there is absolutely not a single one. Notice that geen enkele always takes a singular noun, just like 'not a single' does in English.
Why is it enkele with an -e at the end, rather than enkel?
Because voorbijganger is a de word (de voorbijganger). After geen, adjectives and adjective-like words get an -e ending when they describe a de word. If you were describing a het word, you would drop the -e and use geen enkel (for example, geen enkel probleem).
How is the word voorbijganger built?
Does tamelijk mean the exact same thing as heel (very)?
Not quite. While heel means 'very', tamelijk is a bit weaker and translates to 'quite', 'fairly', or 'rather'. It tells us the street is significantly dark, but maybe not pitch black.
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