de of het pleegkind?
het pleegkind
foster child
noun
It is “het pleegkind”. The plural is “de pleegkinderen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: pleegkind
Forms
- Article
- het pleegkind
- Plural
- de pleegkinderen
- Diminutive
- het pleegkindje
- Also means
- temporarily, indefinitely
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het pleegkind woont hier nu.
The foster child lives here now.
Hun pleegkind is gelukkig.
Their foster child is happy.
Veel pleegkinderen zoeken een veilig thuis.
Many foster children seek a safe home.
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 pleegkind” rather than as “pleegkind” 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.