de of het voorzitterschap?
het voorzitterschap
chairmanship
noun
It is “het voorzitterschap”. The plural is “de voorzitterschappen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voorzitterschap
Forms
- Article
- het voorzitterschap
- Plural
- de voorzitterschappen
- Diminutive
- het voorzitterschapje
- Also means
- leadership, chairpersonship
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij nam het voorzitterschap op zich.
He took on the chairmanship.
Het voorzitterschap wisselt jaarlijks.
The chairmanship changes annually.
Haar voorzitterschap was zeer succesvol.
Her chairmanship was very successful.
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 voorzitterschap” rather than as “voorzitterschap” 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.