de of het tentamen?
het tentamen
examination
noun
It is “het tentamen”. The plural is “de tentamens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tentamen
Forms
- Article
- het tentamen
- Plural
- de tentamens
- Diminutive
- het tentamentje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het tentamen is volgende week.
The exam is next week.
Ik moet nog studeren voor het tentamen.
I still need to study for the exam.
Ik hoop dat ik het tentamen haal.
I hope I pass the exam.
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 tentamen” rather than as “tentamen” 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.