de of het aanzoek?
het aanzoek
proposal
noun · /ˈaːn.zuk/
It is “het aanzoek”. The plural is “de aanzoeken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: aanzoek
Forms
- Article
- het aanzoek
- Plural
- de aanzoeken
- Diminutive
- het aanzoekje
- Also means
- offer
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ze accepteerde het aanzoek.
She accepted the proposal.
We overwegen het aanzoek van de koper.
We are considering the buyer's offer.
Het aanzoek klonk veelbelovend.
The offer sounded promising.
Why this article
No rule predicts it
This one has to be memorised. No spelling pattern marks it as neuter, which is exactly why it is worth learning as “het aanzoek” rather than as “aanzoek” on its own.
The rules that do work
- • Every plural takes “de”, without exception.
- • Every diminutive ending in -je takes “het”, without exception.
- • Nouns ending in -ing, -heid, -tie, -teit or -schap take “de”.
- • Roughly two thirds of all nouns take “de”, so it is the better guess.
Other nouns whose article has to be memorised
Stop guessing de and het
Woordje has a practice mode for exactly this: it shows a noun and asks for the article, and keeps asking until you stop getting it wrong.