de of het politiegeweld?
het politiegeweld
police violence
noun · /poːˈli.(t)si.ɣəˌʋɛlt/
It is “het politiegeweld”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: politiegeweld
Forms
- Article
- het politiegeweld
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Politiegeweld is een serieus probleem.
Police violence is a serious problem.
Mensen protesteren tegen politiegeweld.
People are protesting against police violence.
Het onderzoek naar politiegeweld loopt nog.
The investigation into police violence is still ongoing.
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 politiegeweld” rather than as “politiegeweld” 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.