de of het kussengevecht?
het kussengevecht
pillow fight
noun · /ˈkʏ.sə(n).ɣəˌvɛxt/
It is “het kussengevecht”. The plural is “de kussengevechten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kussengevecht
Forms
- Article
- het kussengevecht
- Plural
- de kussengevechten
- Diminutive
- het kussengevechtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het kussengevecht was hilarisch.
The pillow fight was hilarious.
We hebben een wild kussengevecht gehouden.
We had a wild pillow fight.
Na het kussengevecht was alles een puinhoop.
After the pillow fight, everything was a mess.
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 kussengevecht” rather than as “kussengevecht” 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.