de of het karwei?
het karwei
job
noun · /kɑrˈʋɛi̯/
It is “het karwei”. The plural is “de karweien”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: karwei
Forms
- Article
- het karwei
- Plural
- de karweien
- Diminutive
- het karweitje
- Also means
- task, work
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het karwei is bijna klaar.
The job is almost done.
Dat was een zwaar karwei.
That was a tough job.
Ik heb nog een karwei te doen.
I still have a job to do.
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 karwei” rather than as “karwei” 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.