de of het pleidooi?
het pleidooi
plea
noun
It is “het pleidooi”. The plural is “de pleidooien”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: pleidooi
Forms
- Article
- het pleidooi
- Plural
- de pleidooien
- Diminutive
- het pleidooitje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De advocaat hield een sterk pleidooi.
The lawyer gave a strong plea.
Zijn pleidooi voor meer groen was overtuigend.
His plea for more greenery was convincing.
Het pleidooi van de student werd afgewezen.
The student's plea was rejected.
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 pleidooi” rather than as “pleidooi” 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.