de of het privéleven?
het privéleven
private life
noun · /priˈveːˌleː.və(n)/
It is “het privéleven”. The plural is “de privélevens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: privéleven
Forms
- Article
- het privéleven
- Plural
- de privélevens
- Diminutive
- het privéleventje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Je privéleven is waardevol.
Your private life is valuable.
Respecteer altijd ieders privéleven.
Always respect everyone's private life.
Werk en privéleven scheiden is gezond.
Separating work and private life is healthy.
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 privéleven” rather than as “privéleven” 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.