de of het symptoom?
het symptoom
medical symptom
noun
It is “het symptoom”. The plural is “de symptomen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: symptoom
Forms
- Article
- het symptoom
- Plural
- de symptomen
- Diminutive
- het symptoompje
- Also means
- indicator
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is een veelvoorkomend symptoom.
This is a common symptom.
Het symptoom verdween na een paar dagen.
The symptom disappeared after a few days.
Hoofdpijn is vaak een symptoom van stress.
Headache is often a symptom of stress.
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 symptoom” rather than as “symptoom” 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.