de of het tafereel?
het tafereel
scene
noun
It is “het tafereel”. The plural is “de taferelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tafereel
Forms
- Article
- het tafereel
- Plural
- de taferelen
- Diminutive
- het tafereeltje
- Also means
- picture
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het tafereel was prachtig om te zien.
The scene was beautiful to see.
Wat een onverwacht tafereel was dat!
What an unexpected scene that was!
Dit tafereel herinner ik me goed.
I remember this scene well.
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 tafereel” rather than as “tafereel” 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.