de of het kruisverhoor?
het kruisverhoor
cross-examination
noun
It is “het kruisverhoor”. The plural is “de kruisverhoren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kruisverhoor
Forms
- Article
- het kruisverhoor
- Plural
- de kruisverhoren
- Diminutive
- het kruisverhoortje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het kruisverhoor begon direct.
The cross-examination started immediately.
De getuige bereidde zich voor op het kruisverhoor.
The witness prepared for the cross-examination.
Het kruisverhoor duurde urenlang.
The cross-examination lasted for hours.
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 kruisverhoor” rather than as “kruisverhoor” 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.