de of het dreigement?
het dreigement
threat
noun · /ˈdrɛi̯.ɣəˌmɛnt/
It is “het dreigement”. The plural is “de dreigementen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dreigement
Forms
- Article
- het dreigement
- Plural
- de dreigementen
- Diminutive
- het dreigementje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij negeerde het dreigement volledig.
He completely ignored the threat.
Haar dreigement klonk overtuigend.
Her threat sounded convincing.
De dreigementen stopten nooit.
The threats never stopped.
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 dreigement” rather than as “dreigement” 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.