de of het risico?
het risico
risk
noun · /ˈri.zi.koː/
It is “het risico”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: risico
Forms
- Article
- het risico
- Diminutive
- het risicootje
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Je loopt het risico te vallen.
You run the risk of falling.
Luisteren op eigen risico.
Listen at your own risk.
Hij neemt een groot risico.
He is taking a big risk.
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 risico” rather than as “risico” 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.