de of het staatsgeheim?
het staatsgeheim
state secret
noun · /ˈstaːts.xəˌɦɛi̯m/
It is “het staatsgeheim”. The plural is “de staatsgeheimen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: staatsgeheim
Forms
- Article
- het staatsgeheim
- Plural
- de staatsgeheimen
- Diminutive
- het staatsgeheimpje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dat document is een staatsgeheim.
That document is a state secret.
Niemand mag het staatsgeheim verklappen.
Nobody may reveal the state secret.
Veel van die dossiers zijn staatsgeheimen.
Many of those files are state secrets.
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 staatsgeheim” rather than as “staatsgeheim” 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.