de of het ongeluk?
het ongeluk
accident
noun · /ˈɔŋ.ɣəˌlʏk/
It is “het ongeluk”. The plural is “de ongelukken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ongeluk
Forms
- Article
- het ongeluk
- Plural
- de ongelukken
- Diminutive
- het ongelukje
- Also means
- unhappiness, misery, bad luck, misfortune
- How common
- among the 1,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het ongeluk gebeurde op de snelweg.
The accident happened on the highway.
Niemand raakte gewond bij het ongeluk.
Nobody got injured in the accident.
Hij had een klein ongelukje met zijn fiets.
He had a small mishap with his bike.
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 ongeluk” rather than as “ongeluk” 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.