de of het tegenwicht?
het tegenwicht
counterbalance
noun · /ˈteː.ɣə(n)ˌʋɪxt/
It is “het tegenwicht”. The plural is “de tegenwichten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tegenwicht
Forms
- Article
- het tegenwicht
- Plural
- de tegenwichten
- Diminutive
- het tegenwichtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Deze maatregel biedt een belangrijk tegenwicht.
This measure offers an important counterbalance.
Er is tegenwicht nodig tegen deze trend.
A counterbalance is needed against this trend.
Zijn ervaring vormt het nodige tegenwicht.
His experience forms the necessary counterbalance.
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 tegenwicht” rather than as “tegenwicht” 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.