de of het bruidspaar?
het bruidspaar
bridal couple
noun · /ˈbrœy̯ts.paːr/
It is “het bruidspaar”. The plural is “de bruidsparen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bruidspaar
Forms
- Article
- het bruidspaar
- Plural
- de bruidsparen
- Diminutive
- het bruidspaartje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het bruidspaar lachte de hele dag.
The bridal couple smiled all day.
Iedereen feliciteerde het bruidspaar hartelijk.
Everyone warmly congratulated the bridal couple.
De gasten wachten op het bruidspaar.
The guests are waiting for the bridal couple.
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 bruidspaar” rather than as “bruidspaar” 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.