de of het delict?
het delict
crime
noun · /dəˈlɪkt/
It is “het delict”. The plural is “de delicten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: delict
Forms
- Article
- het delict
- Plural
- de delicten
- Diminutive
- het delictje
- Also means
- wrong
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Wat was het delict precies?
What exactly was the crime?
De politie onderzoekt het delict grondig.
The police are thoroughly investigating the crime.
Diefstal is een veelvoorkomend delict.
Theft is a common crime.
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 delict” rather than as “delict” 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.