Dutch has two grammatical genders: de-words (common gender, roughly 70% of nouns) and het-words (neuter, roughly 30%). Unlike German (which has three genders and strongly affects meaning), Dutch gender mainly affects the article (de/het), adjective inflection, and pronouns. Getting it wrong is noticed by native speakers but rarely blocks communication — which means you can speak effectively while still learning.
Patterns that help identify het-words: diminutives (always het: het huisje), infinitives used as nouns (always het: het lopen, het eten), most words ending in -ment, -sel, -um (het departement, het mengsel, het medium), and most two-syllable words starting with be-, ge-, ver-, ont- (het gebied, het gebruik). Het-words also include most metals (het goud, het zilver), languages (het Nederlands, het Frans), compass points (het noorden), and sports (het voetbal, het tennis).
Memory tricks: always learn the article with the noun from the very first encounter — de fiets, not just fiets. Use colour coding in your Anki cards (red for de, blue for het). The website dewolfindekooi.nl has a de/het checker for any Dutch word. When writing, hovering uncertainty should prompt you to check — do not guess and move on. Over time, exposure builds intuition. Native speakers know gender automatically from years of input — your path to the same intuition is volume of reading and listening with attention.