de of het samenzijn?
het samenzijn
get-together
noun
It is “het samenzijn”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: samenzijn
Forms
- Article
- het samenzijn
- Diminutive
- het samenzijntje
- Also means
- gathering
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ons jaarlijkse samenzijn is belangrijk.
Our annual get-together is important.
Het samenzijn met vrienden is fijn.
Being together with friends is nice.
Na het samenzijn gingen we naar huis.
After the get-together, we went home.
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 samenzijn” rather than as “samenzijn” 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.