de of het rechtsgebied?
het rechtsgebied
jurisdiction
noun
It is “het rechtsgebied”. The plural is “de rechtsgebieden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: rechtsgebied
Forms
- Article
- het rechtsgebied
- Plural
- de rechtsgebieden
- Diminutive
- het rechtsgebiedje
- Also means
- official
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit valt onder dat rechtsgebied.
This falls under that jurisdiction.
Is dit jouw rechtsgebied?
Is this your area of law?
Zijn er meerdere rechtsgebieden betrokken?
Are multiple jurisdictions involved?
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 rechtsgebied” rather than as “rechtsgebied” 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.