de of het merendeel?
het merendeel
majority
noun · /ˈmeː.rə(n)ˈdeːl/
It is “het merendeel”. The plural is “de merendelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: merendeel
Forms
- Article
- het merendeel
- Plural
- de merendelen
- Diminutive
- het merendeeltje
- Also means
- largest proportion
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het merendeel van de studenten was aanwezig.
The majority of the students were present.
Het merendeel van de stemmen ging naar hem.
The majority of the votes went to him.
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 merendeel” rather than as “merendeel” 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.