de of het balspel?
het balspel
ballgame
noun · /ˈbɑl.spɛl/
It is “het balspel”. The plural is “de balspelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: balspel
Forms
- Article
- het balspel
- Plural
- de balspelen
- Diminutive
- het balspelletje
- Also means
- sport
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het balspel begint om twee uur.
The ballgame starts at two o'clock.
Kinderen spelen vaak een balspel buiten.
Children often play a ballgame outside.
Er zijn veel verschillende balspelen.
There are many different ballgames.
Why this article
No rule predicts it
This one has to be memorised. No spelling pattern marks it as neuter, which is exactly why it is worth learning as “het balspel” rather than as “balspel” on its own.
The rules that do work
- • Every plural takes “de”, without exception.
- • Every diminutive ending in -je takes “het”, without exception.
- • Nouns ending in -ing, -heid, -tie, -teit or -schap take “de”.
- • Roughly two thirds of all nouns take “de”, so it is the better guess.
Other nouns whose article has to be memorised
Stop guessing de and het
Woordje has a practice mode for exactly this: it shows a noun and asks for the article, and keeps asking until you stop getting it wrong.