de of het meningsverschil?
het meningsverschil
disagreement
noun · /ˈmeː.nɪŋs.vərˌsxɪl/
It is “het meningsverschil”. The plural is “de meningsverschillen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: meningsverschil
Forms
- Article
- het meningsverschil
- Plural
- de meningsverschillen
- Diminutive
- het meningsverschilletje
- Also means
- difference of opinion
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Er was een klein meningsverschil over de taak.
There was a small disagreement about the task.
Zij hadden een meningsverschil over de prijs.
They had a disagreement about the price.
Het meningsverschil duurde gelukkig niet lang.
The disagreement fortunately didn't last long.
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 meningsverschil” rather than as “meningsverschil” 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.