de of het tegendeel?
het tegendeel
contrary
noun · [ˈteː.ɣə(n).deːl]
It is “het tegendeel”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tegendeel
Forms
- Article
- het tegendeel
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
In tegendeel! Ik ben het ermee eens.
On the contrary! I agree with it.
Nee, het tegendeel is waar.
No, the contrary is true.
Hij kon het tegendeel bewijzen.
He could prove the contrary.
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 tegendeel” rather than as “tegendeel” 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.