de of het raadsel?
het raadsel
riddle
noun · /ˈraːtsəl/
It is “het raadsel”. The plural is “de raadsels”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: raadsel
Forms
- Article
- het raadsel
- Plural
- de raadsels
- Diminutive
- het raadseltje
- Also means
- mystery
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Dit is een moeilijk raadsel.
This is a difficult riddle.
Los jij dit raadsel voor mij op?
Will you solve this riddle for me?
De oorzaak blijft een groot raadsel.
The cause remains a big mystery.
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 raadsel” rather than as “raadsel” 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.