de of het erewoord?
het erewoord
word of honor
noun · /ˈeː.rəˌʋoːrt/
It is “het erewoord”. The plural is “de erewoorden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: erewoord
Forms
- Article
- het erewoord
- Plural
- de erewoorden
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik geef je mijn erewoord.
I give you my word of honor.
Hij heeft zijn erewoord gebroken.
He broke his word of honor.
Hij gaf zijn erewoord en hield zich eraan.
He gave his word of honor and kept it.
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 erewoord” rather than as “erewoord” 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.