de of het plagiaat?
het plagiaat
plagiarism
noun
It is “het plagiaat”. The plural is “de plagiaten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: plagiaat
Forms
- Article
- het plagiaat
- Plural
- de plagiaten
- Diminutive
- het plagiaatje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Plagiaat is absoluut niet toegestaan.
Plagiarism is absolutely not allowed.
Hij werd betrapt op plagiaat in zijn werk.
He was caught plagiarizing in his work.
Dit rapport bevat duidelijk plagiaat.
This report clearly contains plagiarism.
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 plagiaat” rather than as “plagiaat” 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.