de of het familiegeheim?
het familiegeheim
family secret
noun · /faːˈmi.li.ɣəˌɦɛi̯m/
It is “het familiegeheim”. The plural is “de familiegeheimen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: familiegeheim
Forms
- Article
- het familiegeheim
- Plural
- de familiegeheimen
- Diminutive
- het familiegeheimpje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Iedere familie heeft wel een familiegeheim.
Every family has a family secret.
Is dit echt een familiegeheim?
Is this really a family secret?
We moeten dit familiegeheim bewaren.
We must keep this family secret.
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 familiegeheim” rather than as “familiegeheim” 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.