de of het succesverhaal?
het succesverhaal
success story
noun · /ˈsyk.sɛs.fɛrˌɦaːl/
It is “het succesverhaal”. The plural is “de succesverhalen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: succesverhaal
Forms
- Article
- het succesverhaal
- Plural
- de succesverhalen
- Diminutive
- het succesverhaaltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is een inspirerend succesverhaal.
This is an inspiring success story.
Het succesverhaal verscheen in de krant.
The success story appeared in the newspaper.
Wij hopen op ons eigen succesverhaal.
We hope for our own success story.
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 succesverhaal” rather than as “succesverhaal” 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.