de of het leeftijdsverschil?
het leeftijdsverschil
age gap
noun · /ˈleːf.tɛi̯ts.vərˌsxɪl/
It is “het leeftijdsverschil”. The plural is “de leeftijdsverschillen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: leeftijdsverschil
Forms
- Article
- het leeftijdsverschil
- Plural
- de leeftijdsverschillen
- Diminutive
- het leeftijdsverschilletje
- Also means
- age difference
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het leeftijdsverschil is best groot.
The age gap is quite large.
Er is geen leeftijdsverschil tussen hen.
There is no age gap between them.
Ze merkten het leeftijdsverschil nauwelijks.
They hardly noticed the age gap.
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 leeftijdsverschil” rather than as “leeftijdsverschil” 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.