de of het feestmaal?
het feestmaal
feast
noun
It is “het feestmaal”. The plural is “de feestmalen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: feestmaal
Forms
- Article
- het feestmaal
- Plural
- de feestmalen
- Diminutive
- het feestmaaltje
- Also means
- banquet, festive meal
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het feestmaal was heerlijk en overvloedig.
The feast was delicious and abundant.
We organiseren een feestmaal voor de hele familie.
We are organizing a feast for the entire family.
Iedereen keek uit naar het feestmaal van vanavond.
Everyone was looking forward to tonight's feast.
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 feestmaal” rather than as “feestmaal” 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.