de of het medelijden?
het medelijden
compassion
noun · /ˈmeː.dəˌlɛi̯.də(n)/
It is “het medelijden”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: medelijden
Forms
- Article
- het medelijden
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik heb medelijden met hem.
I feel sorry for him.
Ik heb veel medelijden met die mensen.
I have a lot of compassion for those people.
Ze voelde geen medelijden voor de bedrieger.
She felt no compassion for the deceiver.
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 medelijden” rather than as “medelijden” 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.