de of het zelfbewustzijn?
het zelfbewustzijn
self-awareness
noun
It is “het zelfbewustzijn”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zelfbewustzijn
Forms
- Article
- het zelfbewustzijn
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Kinderen ontwikkelen langzaam hun zelfbewustzijn.
Children slowly develop their self-awareness.
Met zelfbewustzijn maak je betere keuzes.
With self-awareness, you make better choices.
Een gebrek aan zelfbewustzijn kan problemen veroorzaken.
A lack of self-awareness can cause problems.
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 zelfbewustzijn” rather than as “zelfbewustzijn” 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.