de of het kampioenschap?
het kampioenschap
championship
noun · /kɑm.piˈjuns.xɑp/
It is “het kampioenschap”. The plural is “de kampioenschappen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kampioenschap
Forms
- Article
- het kampioenschap
- Plural
- de kampioenschappen
- Diminutive
- het kampioenschapje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het nationale voetbalkampioenschap wordt elk jaar gehouden.
The national football championship is held every year.
Het zwemteam won het regionale kampioenschap met overtuiging.
The swim team won the regional championship convincingly.
Na het winnen van het toernooi kreeg hij het kampioenschap en de gouden medaille.
After winning the tournament, he received the championship and the gold medal.
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 kampioenschap” rather than as “kampioenschap” 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.