de of het onderzoeksteam?
het onderzoeksteam
research team
noun · /ˈɔn.dər.zuksˌtim/
It is “het onderzoeksteam”. The plural is “de onderzoeksteams”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: onderzoeksteam
Forms
- Article
- het onderzoeksteam
- Plural
- de onderzoeksteams
- Diminutive
- het onderzoeksteampje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het onderzoeksteam werkt aan een nieuw project.
The research team is working on a new project.
Een nieuw lid sloot zich aan bij het onderzoeksteam.
A new member joined the research team.
Volgens het onderzoeksteam zijn de resultaten positief.
According to the research team, the results are positive.
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 onderzoeksteam” rather than as “onderzoeksteam” 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.