de of het sollicitatiegesprek?
het sollicitatiegesprek
job interview
noun · /sɔ.li.siˈtaː.(t)si.ɣəˌsprɛk/
It is “het sollicitatiegesprek”. The plural is “de sollicitatiegesprekken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: sollicitatiegesprek
Forms
- Article
- het sollicitatiegesprek
- Plural
- de sollicitatiegesprekken
- Diminutive
- het sollicitatiegesprekje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij was nerveus voor zijn sollicitatiegesprek bij het grote bedrijf.
He was nervous about his job interview at the big company.
Veel sollicitatiegesprekken worden tegenwoordig online gehouden.
Many job interviews are now held online.
Het sollicitatiegesprekje met de manager duurde slechts tien minuten.
The short job interview with the manager lasted only ten minutes.
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 sollicitatiegesprek” rather than as “sollicitatiegesprek” 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.