de of het ongeduld?
het ongeduld
impatience
noun
It is “het ongeduld”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ongeduld
Forms
- Article
- het ongeduld
- Diminutive
- het ongeduldje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Haar ongeduld was duidelijk zichtbaar.
Her impatience was clearly visible.
Hij keek met ongeduld naar de deur.
He looked at the door with impatience.
Zijn ongeduld was bijna tastbaar.
His impatience was almost palpable.
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 ongeduld” rather than as “ongeduld” 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.