de of het roddelblad?
het roddelblad
tabloid
noun · /ˈrɔ.dəlˌblɑt/
It is “het roddelblad”. The plural is “de roddelbladen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: roddelblad
Forms
- Article
- het roddelblad
- Plural
- de roddelbladen
- Diminutive
- het roddelblaadje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het roddelblad stond vol met onzin.
The tabloid was full of nonsense.
Veel mensen lezen graag roddelbladen.
Many people like to read tabloids.
Waarom koop je zo'n roddelblad?
Why do you buy such a tabloid?
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 roddelblad” rather than as “roddelblad” 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.