de of het zicht?
het zicht
sight
noun · /zɪxt/
It is “het zicht”. The plural is “de zichten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zicht
Forms
- Article
- het zicht
- Plural
- de zichten
- Diminutive
- het zichtje
- Also means
- view, vision, sickle
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het zicht op de stad was adembenemend.
The view of the city was breathtaking.
Door de mist was het zicht erg slecht.
Due to the fog, visibility was very poor.
De finishlijn kwam eindelijk in zicht.
The finish line finally came into sight.
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 zicht” rather than as “zicht” 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.