de of het vonnis?
het vonnis
judgment
noun
It is “het vonnis”. The plural is “de vonnissen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vonnis
Forms
- Article
- het vonnis
- Plural
- de vonnissen
- Diminutive
- het vonnisje
- Also means
- decision
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
De rechter las het vonnis voor.
The judge read out the judgment.
Het vonnis was erg streng.
The judgment was very strict.
Ze wachten nog op het vonnis.
They are still waiting for the judgment.
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 vonnis” rather than as “vonnis” 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.