de of het vaderschap?
het vaderschap
fatherhood
noun
It is “het vaderschap”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vaderschap
Forms
- Article
- het vaderschap
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het vaderschap is een grote verantwoordelijkheid.
Fatherhood is a great responsibility.
Hij omarmt het vaderschap met liefde.
He embraces fatherhood with love.
De cursus hielp hem bij zijn vaderschap.
The course helped him with his fatherhood.
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 vaderschap” rather than as “vaderschap” 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.