de of het meervoud?
het meervoud
plural
noun · /ˈmeːr.vɑu̯t/
It is “het meervoud”. The plural is “de meervouden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: meervoud
Forms
- Article
- het meervoud
- Plural
- de meervouden
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het meervoud van 'huis' is 'huizen'.
The plural of 'house' is 'houses'.
Je moet ook het meervoud leren.
You also have to learn the plural.
Het Nederlandse meervoud heeft vaak twee vormen.
The Dutch plural often has two forms.
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 meervoud” rather than as “meervoud” 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.