de of het eindspel?
het eindspel
endgame
noun
It is “het eindspel”. The plural is “de eindspellen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: eindspel
Forms
- Article
- het eindspel
- Plural
- de eindspellen
- Diminutive
- het eindspeltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het eindspel in schaken is complex.
The endgame in chess is complex.
We zijn nu in het eindspel van dit project.
We are now in the endgame of this project.
Wanneer begint het eindspel van de onderhandelingen?
When does the endgame of the negotiations begin?
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 eindspel” rather than as “eindspel” 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.