de of het kerstverhaal?
het kerstverhaal
Nativity story
noun · /ˈkɛrst.fɛrˌɦaːl/
It is “het kerstverhaal”. The plural is “de kerstverhalen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kerstverhaal
Forms
- Article
- het kerstverhaal
- Plural
- de kerstverhalen
- Diminutive
- het kerstverhaaltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het kerstverhaal is elk jaar weer bijzonder.
The Christmas story is special every year again.
We lezen het kerstverhaal voor de kinderen voor.
We read the Christmas story to the children.
Ken jij het hele kerstverhaal uit je hoofd?
Do you know the whole Christmas story by heart?
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 kerstverhaal” rather than as “kerstverhaal” 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.