de of het narcisme?
het narcisme
narcissism
noun · /ˌnɑrˈsɪs.mə/
It is “het narcisme”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: narcisme
Forms
- Article
- het narcisme
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Narcisme is een complex persoonlijkheidskenmerk.
Narcissism is a complex personality trait.
Zijn narcisme maakte hem blind voor kritiek.
His narcissism made him blind to criticism.
Er zit een grens tussen zelfliefde en narcisme.
There is a line between self-love and narcissism.
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 narcisme” rather than as “narcisme” 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.