de of het fatsoen?
het fatsoen
decency
noun · /fɑtˈsun/
It is “het fatsoen”. The plural is “de fatsoenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: fatsoen
Forms
- Article
- het fatsoen
- Plural
- de fatsoenen
- Diminutive
- het fatsoentje
- Also means
- propriety
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Dat is gewoon een kwestie van fatsoen.
That is simply a matter of decency.
Hij heeft geen fatsoen.
He has no decency.
Ouders moeten hun kinderen fatsoen bijbrengen.
Parents must teach their children decency.
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 fatsoen” rather than as “fatsoen” 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.