de of het cadeau?
het cadeau
present
noun · /kaːˈdoː/
It is “het cadeau”. The plural is “de cadeaus”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: cadeau
Forms
- Article
- het cadeau
- Plural
- de cadeaus
- Diminutive
- het cadeautje
- Also means
- gift
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik heb een mooi cadeau gekregen.
I received a nice present.
Het cadeau was perfect voor haar.
The present was perfect for her.
Ik moet nog een cadeau kopen.
I still need to buy a present.
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 cadeau” rather than as “cadeau” 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.