de of het kabaal?
het kabaal
din
noun · /kaːˈbaːl/
It is “het kabaal”. The plural is “de kabalen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kabaal
Forms
- Article
- het kabaal
- Plural
- de kabalen
- Diminutive
- het kabaaltje
- Also means
- commotion, uproar, fuss over nothing
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
God, wat maken die koters een kabaal.
God, those kids are making an awful lot of noise.
Waar maak je nou zo'n kabaal om, jongen?
What are you making such a fuss over it for, young man?
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 kabaal” rather than as “kabaal” 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.