de of het nietsdoen?
het nietsdoen
idleness
noun · /ˈnits.dun/
It is “het nietsdoen”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: nietsdoen
Forms
- Article
- het nietsdoen
- Also means
- faineance
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het nietsdoen is soms heel fijn.
Idleness is sometimes very nice.
Na een drukke dag verlang ik naar nietsdoen.
After a busy day, I long for idleness.
Hij geniet echt van het nietsdoen.
He truly enjoys idleness.
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 nietsdoen” rather than as “nietsdoen” 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.