de of het slimmerd?
het slimmerd
smart person
noun
It is “het slimmerd”. The plural is “de slimmerds”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: slimmerd
Forms
- Article
- het slimmerd
- Plural
- de slimmerds
- Diminutive
- het slimmerdje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het slimmerd vond direct de oplossing.
The smart person immediately found the solution.
Hé, slimmerd, help me even!
Hey, smarty, help me out quickly!
Ik ken een slimmerd die alles weet.
I know a smart person who knows everything.
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 slimmerd” rather than as “slimmerd” 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.