de of het ongeval?
het ongeval
accident
noun · /ˈɔn.ɣəˌvɑl/
It is “het ongeval”. The plural is “de ongevallen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ongeval
Forms
- Article
- het ongeval
- Plural
- de ongevallen
- Diminutive
- het ongevalletje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het ongeval gebeurde op de snelweg.
The accident happened on the highway.
Gelukkig heeft niemand letsel opgelopen bij het ongeval.
Fortunately, nobody was injured in the accident.
We moeten elk ongeval serieus nemen.
We must take every accident seriously.
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 ongeval” rather than as “ongeval” 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.