de of het bordspel?
het bordspel
board game
noun · /ˈbɔrt.spɛl/
It is “het bordspel”. The plural is “de bordspelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bordspel
Forms
- Article
- het bordspel
- Plural
- de bordspelen
- Diminutive
- het bordspelletje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We spelen vanavond een bordspel.
We are playing a board game tonight.
Mijn favoriete bordspel is Kolonisten van Catan.
My favorite board game is Settlers of Catan.
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 bordspel” rather than as “bordspel” 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.