de of het antigif?
het antigif
antidote
noun
It is “het antigif”. The plural is “de antigiffen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: antigif
Forms
- Article
- het antigif
- Plural
- de antigiffen
- Diminutive
- het antigifje
- Also means
- synonym of tegengif
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het antigif moet snel worden toegediend.
The antidote must be administered quickly.
Het ziekenhuis heeft gelukkig antigif op voorraad.
The hospital fortunately has antidote in stock.
De verpleegster gaf de patiënt het antigif.
The nurse gave the patient the antidote.
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 antigif” rather than as “antigif” 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.