de of het citaat?
het citaat
quotation
noun · /siˈtaːt/
It is “het citaat”. The plural is “de citaten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: citaat
Forms
- Article
- het citaat
- Plural
- de citaten
- Diminutive
- het citaatje
- Also means
- notably as reference
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik las een interessant citaat in dat boek.
I read an interesting quotation in that book.
Het citaat was perfect voor mijn presentatie.
The quotation was perfect for my presentation.
Dat is een beroemd citaat van Einstein.
That is a famous quotation by Einstein.
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 citaat” rather than as “citaat” 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.