de of het slotpleidooi?
het slotpleidooi
closing argument
noun
It is “het slotpleidooi”. The plural is “de slotpleidooien”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: slotpleidooi
Forms
- Article
- het slotpleidooi
- Plural
- de slotpleidooien
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De advocaat hield een sterk slotpleidooi.
The lawyer gave a strong closing argument.
Het slotpleidooi was erg overtuigend.
The closing argument was very convincing.
Iedereen luisterde aandachtig naar het slotpleidooi.
Everyone listened carefully to the closing argument.
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 slotpleidooi” rather than as “slotpleidooi” 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.