de of het kerstdiner?
het kerstdiner
Christmas dinner
noun · /ˈkɛrst.diˌneː/
It is “het kerstdiner”. The plural is “de kerstdiners”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kerstdiner
Forms
- Article
- het kerstdiner
- Plural
- de kerstdiners
- Diminutive
- het kerstdinertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het kerstdiner is dit jaar bij mijn ouders.
The Christmas dinner is at my parents' house this year.
We moeten nog boodschappen doen voor het kerstdiner.
We still need to do groceries for the Christmas dinner.
Het kerstdiner was erg lekker vorig jaar.
The Christmas dinner was very tasty last year.
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 kerstdiner” rather than as “kerstdiner” 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.