de of het waanidee?
het waanidee
delusional idea
noun
It is “het waanidee”. The plural is “de waanideeën”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: waanidee
Forms
- Article
- het waanidee
- Plural
- de waanideeën
- Diminutive
- het waanideetje
- Also means
- delusional notion
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij heeft een vreemd waanidee over complotten.
He has a strange delusional idea about conspiracies.
Denk je niet dat dat een waanidee is?
Don't you think that's a delusional idea?
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 waanidee” rather than as “waanidee” 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.