de of het nagerecht?
het nagerecht
dessert
noun · /ˈnaː.ɣəˌrɛxt/
It is “het nagerecht”. The plural is “de nagerechten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: nagerecht
Forms
- Article
- het nagerecht
- Plural
- de nagerechten
- Diminutive
- het nagerechtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Nemen jullie een nagerecht?
Will you all have a dessert?
We kozen het nagerecht van de dag.
We chose the dessert of the day.
Wil je na het eten nog een nagerecht?
Do you want a dessert after dinner?
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 nagerecht” rather than as “nagerecht” 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.