de of het faillissement?
het faillissement
bankruptcy
noun · /ˌfaː.ji.səˈmɛnt/
It is “het faillissement”. The plural is “de faillissementen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: faillissement
Forms
- Article
- het faillissement
- Plural
- de faillissementen
- Diminutive
- het faillissementje
- Also means
- demise
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het faillissement van de winkel was onvermijdelijk.
The bankruptcy of the store was inevitable.
Slechte beslissingen leidden tot het faillissement.
Bad decisions led to the bankruptcy.
Na het faillissement sloten alle filialen.
After the bankruptcy, all branches closed.
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 faillissement” rather than as “faillissement” 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.