de of het mankement?
het mankement
defect
noun
It is “het mankement”. The plural is “de mankementen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: mankement
Forms
- Article
- het mankement
- Plural
- de mankementen
- Diminutive
- het mankementje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We vonden een klein mankement.
We found a small defect.
Door een technisch mankement viel de stroom uit.
Due to a technical defect, the power went out.
Alle mankementen moeten worden opgelost.
All defects must be resolved.
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 mankement” rather than as “mankement” 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.