de of het huwelijkscadeau?
het huwelijkscadeau
wedding gift
noun · /ˈɦyʋ(ə)ləkskɑˌdoː/
It is “het huwelijkscadeau”. The plural is “de huwelijkscadeaus”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: huwelijkscadeau
Forms
- Article
- het huwelijkscadeau
- Plural
- de huwelijkscadeaus
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het huwelijkscadeau was perfect.
The wedding gift was perfect.
We zoeken een leuk huwelijkscadeau.
We are looking for a nice wedding gift.
Heb jij het huwelijkscadeau al ingepakt?
Have you already wrapped the wedding gift?
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 huwelijkscadeau” rather than as “huwelijkscadeau” 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.