de of het opzicht?
het opzicht
respect
noun
It is “het opzicht”. The plural is “de opzichten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: opzicht
Forms
- Article
- het opzicht
- Plural
- de opzichten
- Diminutive
- het opzichtje
- Also means
- supervision, relation, regard
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
De stagiair staat onder nauw opzicht.
The intern is under close supervision.
Wie heeft het opzicht over dit project?
Who has supervision over this project?
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 opzicht” rather than as “opzicht” 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.