de of het tiental?
het tiental
group of ten
noun
It is “het tiental”. The plural is “de tientallen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tiental
Forms
- Article
- het tiental
- Plural
- de tientallen
- Diminutive
- het tientalletje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Er waren een tiental bezoekers.
There were about ten visitors.
Ik heb een tiental nieuwe potloden.
I have about ten new pencils.
De vergadering duurde een tiental minuten.
The meeting lasted about ten minutes.
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 tiental” rather than as “tiental” 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.