some, several, few, many in Dutch: een paar, enkele, weinig, veel

These words drop a rough quantity in front of a noun without naming an exact number: een paar boterhammen (a few sandwiches), veel geduld (much patience), weinig ruimte (little space). Grammar calls them indefinite pronouns — words for an amount you leave unspecified. The quickest way to choose the right one is to ask two questions: can I count the noun, and is the amount small or large? This page walks through the answers.

When the noun is countable and there are only a handful, the plain choice is een paar; enkele says the same thing in a more formal register. Both sit in front of a plural noun and cover things and people alike.

• een paar — the default: Er staan een paar fietsen voor de deur. (There are a few bikes in front of the door.) On its own een paar means a pair, but in front of a noun it just signals a small count.
• enkele — the same idea one notch more formal, before a plural noun: Ik heb enkele foto's gemaakt. (I took a few photos.)

Enkele can also stand without a noun. Pointing to people, it grows an -n: Enkelen van hen spraken al Nederlands. (A few of them already spoke Dutch.) Pointing to things it stays enkele. That same people-get-an--n pattern covers this whole family; the details are in the -n rule for sommige, beide and enkele.

For a small helping of a substance you cannot count — liquids, materials, abstract stuff — reach for wat. It sounds relaxed and everyday, and unlike een paar or enkele it happily sits in front of an uncountable noun.

• before an uncountable noun (a little): Wil je nog wat thee? (Would you like some tea?), Doe er nog wat zout bij. (Add a bit more salt to it.)
• before a plural noun (some): Ik heb wat vrienden uitgenodigd. (I invited some friends.) Here wat overlaps with een paar.

To say several — more than one, but you are not counting them out — Dutch offers three words that all precede a plural noun and mostly trade places freely.

One caution: verschillende has a second life as an ordinary adjective meaning different. So verschillende steden can read as several cities or different cities, and only context settles it — verscheidene leans on the sheer number while verschillende can hint that the items differ from one another. Meerdere stays out of that ambiguity; it only ever means more than one.

English switches words depending on whether the noun is countable — many against much, few against little. Dutch does not bother: veel covers the large end and weinig the small end, no matter the noun.

• veel — many with a plural (veel kinderen — many children) and much with an uncountable noun (veel geduld — much patience).
• weinig — few with a plural (weinig vrienden — few friends) and little with an uncountable noun (weinig slaap — little sleep).

In front of a noun both stay bare — no -e is added, and the de/het type of the noun makes no difference: veel mensen, veel water, weinig regen. An ending appears only when the word is wedged between an article and its noun: de weinige zonnige dagen van deze zomer (the few sunny days of this summer), de vele reacties op het bericht (the many reactions to the message).

• Small and countable → een paar or enkele: een paar minuten (a few minutes).
• A little of something uncountable → wat: wat melk (some milk). Een paar and enkele cannot go here.
• More than one, count unstated → verschillende, meerdere or verscheidene: meerdere pogingen (several attempts).
• A large amount → veel; a small amount → weinig. Both take countable and uncountable nouns.
• Standing alone about people → add -n: Enkelen / Velen / Weinigen stemden tegen. (A few / many / few voted against.)

Learners often write vele for many, transplanting the English many + plural straight into Dutch. The standard everyday form is bare veel, with no ending: Er wonen veel mensen in deze straat (Many people live on this street), not vele mensen. Vele is real Dutch, but it shifts the focus onto the items one by one rather than the bulk of them, so it is not the neutral choice. If you are unsure, veel is safe. For the wider set of quantity words, see al, alle, elk and iedereen.