de of het zelfvertrouwen?
het zelfvertrouwen
self-confidence
noun
It is “het zelfvertrouwen”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zelfvertrouwen
Forms
- Article
- het zelfvertrouwen
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Zij heeft veel zelfvertrouwen.
She has a lot of self-confidence.
Sporten kan je zelfvertrouwen vergroten.
Exercising can increase your self-confidence.
Na die fout verloor hij zijn zelfvertrouwen.
After that mistake, he lost his self-confidence.
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 zelfvertrouwen” rather than as “zelfvertrouwen” 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.