de of het medeleven?
het medeleven
sympathy
noun
It is “het medeleven”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: medeleven
Forms
- Article
- het medeleven
- Also means
- condolence
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik wil mijn medeleven uitspreken.
I want to express my condolences.
Het medeleven was hartverwarmend.
The sympathy was heartwarming.
Hij toonde geen enkel medeleven.
He showed no sympathy at all.
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 medeleven” rather than as “medeleven” 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.