de of het bijgeloof?
het bijgeloof
superstition
noun · /ˈbɛi̯.ɣəˌloːf/
It is “het bijgeloof”. The plural is “de bijgeloven”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bijgeloof
Forms
- Article
- het bijgeloof
- Plural
- de bijgeloven
- Diminutive
- het bijgeloofje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dat is gewoon bijgeloof, hoor.
That's just superstition, you know.
Ik geloof helemaal niet in bijgeloof.
I don't believe in superstition at all.
Zout morsen is een oud bijgeloof.
Spilling salt is an old superstition.
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 bijgeloof” rather than as “bijgeloof” 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.