de of het seizoen?
het seizoen
season
noun · /sɛi̯ˈzun/
It is “het seizoen”. The plural is “de seizoenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: seizoen
Forms
- Article
- het seizoen
- Plural
- de seizoenen
- Diminutive
- het seizoentje
- Also means
- term
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Mijn favoriete seizoen is de lente.
My favorite season is spring.
Het voetbalseizoen begint volgende maand.
The football season starts next month.
Dit is het seizoen van de aardbeien.
This is the season for strawberries.
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 seizoen” rather than as “seizoen” 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.