de of het tijdsverschil?
het tijdsverschil
time difference
noun
It is “het tijdsverschil”. The plural is “de tijdsverschillen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tijdsverschil
Forms
- Article
- het tijdsverschil
- Plural
- de tijdsverschillen
- Diminutive
- het tijdsverschilletje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Er is een groot tijdsverschil.
There is a big time difference.
Hoe groot is het tijdsverschil?
How big is the time difference?
Ik heb last van het tijdsverschil.
I am bothered by the time difference.
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 tijdsverschil” rather than as “tijdsverschil” 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.