de of het bijgerecht?
het bijgerecht
side dish
noun · /ˈbɛi̯.ɣəˌrɛxt/
It is “het bijgerecht”. The plural is “de bijgerechten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bijgerecht
Forms
- Article
- het bijgerecht
- Plural
- de bijgerechten
- Diminutive
- het bijgerechtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Welk bijgerecht neem jij erbij?
Which side dish are you taking with it?
De salade is een lekker bijgerecht.
The salad is a tasty side dish.
Zullen we een extra bijgerecht bestellen?
Shall we order an extra side dish?
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 bijgerecht” rather than as “bijgerecht” 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.