de of het noodweer?
het noodweer
severe weather
noun · /ˈnoːt.ʋeːr/
It is “het noodweer”. The plural is “de noodweren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: noodweer
Forms
- Article
- het noodweer
- Plural
- de noodweren
- Diminutive
- het noodweertje
- Also means
- extremely bad weather, right to self-defense
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Er wordt noodweer verwacht.
Severe weather is expected.
Door het noodweer viel de stroom uit.
Due to the storm, the power went out.
De wedstrijd is afgelast vanwege het noodweer.
The match has been cancelled because of the severe weather.
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 noodweer” rather than as “noodweer” 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.