geen - niet

Illustration taken
from MathGoodies

Negation in a Dutch sentence can happen in two simple ways: by using the word "niet", or by using the word "geen".

Always use the word "niet", except when it is a noun that you want to negate in the sentence.

Het geslacht van zelfstandige naamwoorden

Illustration taken
from SLRevolution

Although I have only been a Livemocha-user shortly (*), I have noticed that Dutch learners have troubles with defining the gender of nouns in Dutch. This is quite a hurdle in the road of mastering the Dutch language and even native speakers make mistakes regarding this one, but the solution is simple: use a dictionary. I recommend to use Van Dale (also for Linux users) or the Wiktionary.

Now, why is this so important?