de of het schrikbewind?
het schrikbewind
reign of terror
noun · /ˈsxrɪk.bəˌʋɪnt/
It is “het schrikbewind”. The plural is “de schrikbewinden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: schrikbewind
Forms
- Article
- het schrikbewind
- Plural
- de schrikbewinden
- Diminutive
- het schrikbewindje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het schrikbewind duurde helaas te lang.
The reign of terror unfortunately lasted too long.
Niemand wilde zo'n schrikbewind in het land.
Nobody wanted such a reign of terror in the country.
De mensen leden erg onder het schrikbewind.
The people suffered greatly under the reign of terror.
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 schrikbewind” rather than as “schrikbewind” 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.