de of het plezier?
het plezier
fun
noun · /pləˈziːr/
It is “het plezier”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: plezier
Forms
- Article
- het plezier
- Diminutive
- het pleziertje
- Also means
- leisure, pleasure
- How common
- among the 1,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Veel plezier met je nieuwe fiets!
Have a lot of fun with your new bike!
Het is altijd een plezier om je te zien.
It's always a pleasure to see you.
De kinderen hadden veel plezier in de speeltuin.
The children had a lot of fun in the playground.
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 plezier” rather than as “plezier” 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.