de of het toelatingsexamen?
het toelatingsexamen
entrance examination
noun
It is “het toelatingsexamen”. The plural is “de toelatingsexamens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: toelatingsexamen
Forms
- Article
- het toelatingsexamen
- Plural
- de toelatingsexamens
- Diminutive
- het toelatingsexamentje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het toelatingsexamen was erg moeilijk.
The entrance examination was very difficult.
Ik moet het toelatingsexamen nog doen.
I still have to take the entrance examination.
Zij is geslaagd voor het toelatingsexamen.
She passed the entrance examination.
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 toelatingsexamen” rather than as “toelatingsexamen” 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.