de of het presidentschap?
het presidentschap
presidency
noun · /preː.ziˈdɛntˌsxɑp/
It is “het presidentschap”. The plural is “de presidentschappen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: presidentschap
Forms
- Article
- het presidentschap
- Plural
- de presidentschappen
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Zijn presidentschap was kort.
His presidency was short.
Het presidentschap begint volgend jaar.
The presidency begins next year.
Zij bereidde zich voor op het presidentschap.
She prepared herself for the presidency.
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 presidentschap” rather than as “presidentschap” 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.