de of het speurwerk?
het speurwerk
research
noun · /ˈspøːrˌʋɛrk/
It is “het speurwerk”. The plural is “de speurwerken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: speurwerk
Forms
- Article
- het speurwerk
- Plural
- de speurwerken
- Diminutive
- het speurwerkje
- Also means
- experiment, study, trial, test, survey
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het speurwerk was erg tijdrovend.
The research was very time-consuming.
We moeten meer speurwerk verrichten.
We need to do more research.
Dankzij zijn speurwerk is de waarheid bekend.
Thanks to his research, the truth is known.
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 speurwerk” rather than as “speurwerk” 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.