de of het familierecept?
het familierecept
family recipe
noun · /faːˈmi.li.rəˌsɛpt/
It is “het familierecept”. The plural is “de familierecepten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: familierecept
Forms
- Article
- het familierecept
- Plural
- de familierecepten
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit familierecept is echt heel oud.
This family recipe is really very old.
Wij maken elk jaar het familierecept met Kerst.
We make the family recipe every year at Christmas.
Mijn oma bewaart het familierecept in een oud boek.
My grandmother keeps the family recipe in an old book.
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 familierecept” rather than as “familierecept” 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.