de of het decennium?
het decennium
decade
noun · /ˌdeːˈsɛ.ni.ʏm/
It is “het decennium”. The plural is “de decennia”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: decennium
Forms
- Article
- het decennium
- Plural
- de decennia
- Diminutive
- het decenniumpje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het afgelopen decennium was heel succesvol.
The past decade was very successful.
Dit decennium zal veel nieuwe technologie brengen.
This decade will bring a lot of new technology.
Ze woont hier al een decennium.
She has lived here for a decade already.
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 decennium” rather than as “decennium” 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.