Learn Dutch: Gelijkheid is een essentieel fundament voor onze samenleving. - Equality is an essential foundation for our society.

You can tell by the suffix -heid. This suffix is used to turn adjectives (like gelijk, which means equal) into nouns. Every single noun that ends in -heid is a de word.

Why is there no -e at the end of the adjective essentieel?

This tells us the gender of fundament. In Dutch, nouns ending in the suffix -ment are almost always het words (like het moment or het fundament). When a singular het word is preceded by een, the adjective before it drops its -e ending.

Is there a predictable rule for the gender of samenleving?

Yes! The word is made from the verb samenleven (to live together) plus the suffix -ing. Any noun formed by adding -ing to a verb is always a de word.

Since samenleving is a de word, does that explain why we use onze instead of ons?