de of het liefdesverhaal?
het liefdesverhaal
love story
noun · /ˈlif.dəs.fərˌɦaːl/
It is “het liefdesverhaal”. The plural is “de liefdesverhalen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: liefdesverhaal
Forms
- Article
- het liefdesverhaal
- Plural
- de liefdesverhalen
- Diminutive
- het liefdesverhaaltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik hou van een goed liefdesverhaal.
I love a good love story.
Hun liefdesverhaal begon in Parijs.
Their love story began in Paris.
Gaat dit over een liefdesverhaal?
Is this about a love story?
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 liefdesverhaal” rather than as “liefdesverhaal” 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.