de of het overlijdensbericht?
het overlijdensbericht
death notice
noun · /ˌoː.vərˈlɛi̯.də(n)s.bəˌrɪxt/
It is “het overlijdensbericht”. The plural is “de overlijdensberichten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: overlijdensbericht
Forms
- Article
- het overlijdensbericht
- Plural
- de overlijdensberichten
- Diminutive
- het overlijdensberichtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik zag het overlijdensbericht in de krant.
I saw the death notice in the newspaper.
Het overlijdensbericht vermeldde de uitvaartdatum.
The death notice mentioned the funeral date.
Ze hebben het overlijdensbericht geplaatst.
They placed the death notice.
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 overlijdensbericht” rather than as “overlijdensbericht” 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.