Predicting Noun Gender
Learning whether a Dutch noun takes de or het can feel like memorizing a dictionary. However, for many abstract concepts, you can predict the gender simply by looking at the suffix.
De Words: -heid, -ing, and -tie
Nouns ending in -heid, -ing, and -tie are always de words.
- -heid: Often translates to English -ness or -hood.
- -ing: Often corresponds to English nouns ending in -ing or -tion.
- -tie: Usually matches English words ending in -tion.
| Wisdom comes with the years. | De wijsheid komt met de jaren. |
| Equality is an essential foundation for our society. | Gelijkheid is een essentieel fundament voor onze samenleving. |
| What is your expectation of this project? | Wat is uw verwachting van dit project? |
| This conviction is shared by many people. | Deze overtuiging wordt door veel mensen gedeeld. |
| The teacher gave a very clear definition of the word. | De docent gaf een heel duidelijke definitie van het woord. |
Het Words: -ment
Nouns ending in the suffix -ment are always het words. These often describe concepts or results of actions and usually look very similar to their English counterparts.
| Love is the foundation of a good relationship. | Liefde is het fundament van een goede relatie. |
| The sentiment of the song is not understood by everyone. | Het sentiment van het lied wordt niet door iedereen begrepen. |
| We only heard the first fragment of the text yesterday. | We hoorden gisteren pas het eerste fragment van de tekst. |
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