Breakdown of Het hele deeg is nog erg plakkerig.
zijn
to be
erg
very / really
het
it
nog
still, yet / more, another (with a quantity)
heel
whole
het deeg
the dough
plakkerig
sticky
Questions & Answers about Het hele deeg is nog erg plakkerig.
Why do we use hele here instead of alle?
We use hele to describe the dough as one single, continuous unit (the whole batch of dough). You could also say al het deeg (all the dough) to talk about the total quantity, which means almost exactly the same thing here. However, you cannot say alle deeg, because alle is used directly before plural nouns, not singular uncountable mass nouns.
Since deeg is a het-word, shouldn't the adjective be heel instead of hele?
Because of the definite article het, the adjective must take the -e ending. A common trap is forgetting that adjectives before singular het-words only drop the -e when they are indefinite (such as after een, geen, or no article at all). Since we have het, it becomes het hele deeg.
How is the word plakkerig formed?
It is built from the verb plakken (to stick) plus the suffix -erig. In Dutch, -erig is often added to verbs or nouns to mean "tending to" or "having the quality of," exactly like the English suffix "-y" makes "sticky" out of "stick."
Doesn't erg usually mean "terrible" or "bad"?
It does when used as an adjective on its own (for example, Dat is heel erg! - That is very bad!). But when placed right before another adjective like plakkerig, erg acts as an intensifier and simply means "very."
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