Universal quantifiers are typically modified by approximative modifiers like bijna'nearly', nagenoeg'almost', vrijwel'nearly' and zowat'about'. Some examples are given in (172).

Being subject to modification by the approximative modifiers is a typical property of all universally quantified elements. It also holds for the pre-determiners al and heel in (173a&b), which are more extensively discussed in Chapter 7, and for universally quantified adverbial phrases like nooit'never', etc.

      In addition to the approximate modifiers above, universal quantifiers can be modified by modifiers that emphasize the fact that all entities satisfying the description are included, like echt'really', letterlijk'literally', volstrekt'completely', werkelijk'really', etc.

Another way to achieve the same semantic effect is by using the X maar dan ook X construction in (175), involving the conjunction maar. Note that the emphasizing modifiers illustrated in (174) can also be part of the second conjunct of this construction; cf. Hoeksema (2001).

Approximative modifiers can be used not only with universal quantifiers, but also with negatively quantified noun phrases such as niemand'nobody' or geen boek'no book'. This is, of course, not surprising given the fact that a negatively quantified phrase can readily be paraphrased by means of a universal quantifier; cf. the equivalence rule ¬∃Φ ↔ ∀¬Φ.

      It is also possible to use modifiers that emphasize that no entity satisfying the description is included, like echt'really', letterlijk'literally', volstrekt'completely', werkelijk'really', etc. The X maar dan ook X construction can also be used to achieve this semantic effect. If the conjunction involves the negative article geen, as in (177c), there is a strong preference to also include a modifier like werkelijk. In all these examples, the modified noun phrase is assigned contrastive accent.

Uninflected high/low degree quantifiers veel and weinig can also be modified by means of degree modifiers, and in this respect these quantifiers pattern more or less like gradable adjectives. The inflected forms vele and weinige, on the other hand, defy modification, regardless of whether they are preceded by a determiner or not. This is shown by the examples in (178).

This restriction on modification of the inflected forms seems to coincide with the restrictions on comparative formation: whereas meer'more' can be readily used in (179a), it gives rise to an ungrammatical result in (179b); note that de mindere boeken is acceptable under the, here irrelevant, reading “the books of lower quality”.

Like most gradable adjectives, veel and weinig have an interrogative counterpart, namely hoeveel'how many/much'. Although hoeveel is normally written as a single word, the fact that it contains the element veel suggests that veel is the neutral form of the antonym pair veel:weinig. Finally, it can be observed that weinig can be coordinated with the quantified pronoun niets'nothing' or with the negative article geen'no', with the resulting meaning “hardly any(thing)”.

      The quantifier voldoende'enough' can be modified by ruim'amply', which indicates that the implicit norm is satisfied to more than a sufficient extent. The degree quantifiers genoeg'enough' and zat'plenty' lack this possibility. Both voldoende and genoeg, but not zat, can be modified by net'just', which indicates that lower bound of the implicit norm has just been met.

      Example (182a) contains the sequence meer dan voldoende/genoeg . Given that meer is the comparative form of the degree quantifier veel , this example raises the question as to whether the quantifier meer modifies voldoende/genoeg or whether it is the other way around. The latter analysis can be supported by claiming that a comparative is normally modified by means of a dan -phrase. However, this particular use of the dan -phrase would be special in that it must precede, and cannot follow, the modified noun, as shown by the (a)-examples in (182); as is illustrated by the (b)-examples, dan -phrases used as modifiers of comparatives normally do not precede the modified noun. This fact may be given in support of the former analysis, according to which it is the comparative meer that modifies the degree quantifier; see Section 6.1.1.4, sub IV, for a similar constructions with cardinal numerals.