de of het tafelvoetbal?
het tafelvoetbal
foosball
noun · /ˈtaː.fəlˌvut.bɑl/
It is “het tafelvoetbal”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tafelvoetbal
Forms
- Article
- het tafelvoetbal
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het tafelvoetbal in de kantine is oud.
The foosball table in the canteen is old.
We spelen vaak tafelvoetbal na het werk.
We often play foosball after work.
Ik ben best goed in tafelvoetbal.
I am quite good at foosball.
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 tafelvoetbal” rather than as “tafelvoetbal” 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.