de of het familielid?
het familielid
relative
noun · /faːˈmi.liˌlɪt/
It is “het familielid”. The plural is “de familieleden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: familielid
Forms
- Article
- het familielid
- Plural
- de familieleden
- Diminutive
- het familielidje
- Also means
- family member
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het familielid belde gisteren.
The relative called yesterday.
Ik heb een familielid geholpen.
I helped a relative.
Hij is het oudste familielid van onze familie.
He is the oldest relative in our family.
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 familielid” rather than as “familielid” 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.