de of het opsporingsbericht?
het opsporingsbericht
all-points bulletin
noun · /ˈɔpˌspoː.rɪŋs.bəˌrɪxt/
It is “het opsporingsbericht”. The plural is “de opsporingsberichten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: opsporingsbericht
Forms
- Article
- het opsporingsbericht
- Plural
- de opsporingsberichten
- Diminutive
- het opsporingsberichtje
- Also means
- missing person appeal
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik zag het opsporingsbericht op tv.
I saw the all-points bulletin on TV.
De politie verspreidde een opsporingsbericht.
The police distributed an all-points bulletin.
Er werd een opsporingsbericht uitgegeven.
An all-points bulletin was issued.
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 opsporingsbericht” rather than as “opsporingsbericht” 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.