de of het grafschrift?
het grafschrift
epitaph
noun · /ˈɣrɑfˌsxrɪft/
It is “het grafschrift”. The plural is “de grafschriften”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: grafschrift
Forms
- Article
- het grafschrift
- Plural
- de grafschriften
- Diminutive
- het grafschriftje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het grafschrift was kort maar krachtig.
The epitaph was short but powerful.
Ze lazen samen het grafschrift op de steen.
They read the epitaph on the stone together.
Wat moet het grafschrift voor haar zeggen?
What should the epitaph for her say?
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 grafschrift” rather than as “grafschrift” 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.