De or het geest?
de geest
ghost, spirit, immaterial being
/ɣeːst/
Article and plural
- Singular
- de geest
- Plural (meervoud)
- de geesten
- Diminutive
- het geestje
Why de?
- No reliable spelling rule decides this one, so de geest is learned together with the word.
- Every plural takes de, so it is de geesten whatever the singular takes.
- Every diminutive takes het: het geestje.
The rules for de and het, with the exceptions
Check the article of another noun
What de changes
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| this, these | deze geest | deze geesten |
| that, those | die geest | die geesten |
| which (the … that) | de geest die … | de geesten die … |
| our | onze geest | onze geesten |
Meaning in English
- ghost, spirit, immaterial being
- mind, mental consciousness
- mindset, mentality
- life force, vital energy
- spirit, gas, distillate, essence
- heath, heathland
Remember geest with Spreek
Spreek keeps the Dutch words you meet, article included, reviews them with you and then has you use them in a spoken conversation.
FreeiPhone
(opens in a new tab)