de of het kruiswoordraadsel?
het kruiswoordraadsel
crossword
noun
It is “het kruiswoordraadsel”. The plural is “de kruiswoordraadsels”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kruiswoordraadsel
Forms
- Article
- het kruiswoordraadsel
- Plural
- de kruiswoordraadsels
- Diminutive
- het kruiswoordraadseltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het kruiswoordraadsel is mijn favoriete hobby.
The crossword is my favorite hobby.
Ik los graag een kruiswoordraadsel op.
I enjoy solving crosswords.
Ben je goed in kruiswoordraadsels?
Are you good at crosswords?
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 kruiswoordraadsel” rather than as “kruiswoordraadsel” 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.