de of het zwaargewicht?
het zwaargewicht
heavyweight
noun · /ˈzʋaːr.ɣəˌʋɪxt/
It is “het zwaargewicht”. The plural is “de zwaargewichten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zwaargewicht
Forms
- Article
- het zwaargewicht
- Plural
- de zwaargewichten
- Diminutive
- het zwaargewichtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De bokser was een echt zwaargewicht.
The boxer was a real heavyweight.
Zij is een zwaargewicht in de politiek.
She is a heavyweight in politics.
Dit project is een zwaargewicht voor ons team.
This project is a heavyweight for our team.
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 zwaargewicht” rather than as “zwaargewicht” 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.