de of het richtingsgevoel?
het richtingsgevoel
sense of direction
noun
It is “het richtingsgevoel”. The plural is “de richtingsgevoelens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: richtingsgevoel
Forms
- Article
- het richtingsgevoel
- Plural
- de richtingsgevoelens
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Zij heeft geen richtingsgevoel.
She has no sense of direction.
Heb jij een goed richtingsgevoel?
Do you have a good sense of direction?
Mijn richtingsgevoel is heel slecht.
My sense of direction is very bad.
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 richtingsgevoel” rather than as “richtingsgevoel” 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.