de of het dansfeest?
het dansfeest
party involving dance
noun · /ˈdɑns.feːst/
It is “het dansfeest”. The plural is “de dansfeesten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dansfeest
Forms
- Article
- het dansfeest
- Plural
- de dansfeesten
- Diminutive
- het dansfeestje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het dansfeest was echt fantastisch.
The dance party was really fantastic.
We gaan vanavond naar het dansfeest.
We are going to the dance party tonight.
Vanavond is er een leuk dansfeest.
Tonight there is a nice dance party.
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 dansfeest” rather than as “dansfeest” 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.