de of het tijdperk?
het tijdperk
age
noun · /ˈtɛi̯t.pɛrk/
It is “het tijdperk”. The plural is “de tijdperken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tijdperk
Forms
- Article
- het tijdperk
- Plural
- de tijdperken
- Diminutive
- het tijdperkje
- Also means
- era
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
We leven in het digitale tijdperk.
We live in the digital era.
Het victoriaanse tijdperk staat bekend om zijn strikte sociale normen.
The Victorian age is known for its strict social norms.
We leven nu in een digitaal tijdperk.
We now live in a digital age.
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 tijdperk” rather than as “tijdperk” 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.