de of het zwijggeld?
het zwijggeld
hush money
noun · /ˈzʋɛi̯.xɛlt/
It is “het zwijggeld”. The plural is “de zwijggelden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zwijggeld
Forms
- Article
- het zwijggeld
- Plural
- de zwijggelden
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ze betaalden veel zwijggeld.
They paid a lot of hush money.
Heeft zij het zwijggeld aangenomen?
Did she accept the hush money?
Zwijggeld is vaak illegaal.
Hush money is often illegal.
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 zwijggeld” rather than as “zwijggeld” 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.