de of het trouwfeest?
het trouwfeest
wedding reception
noun · /trɑu̯.feːst/
It is “het trouwfeest”. The plural is “de trouwfeesten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: trouwfeest
Forms
- Article
- het trouwfeest
- Plural
- de trouwfeesten
- Diminutive
- het trouwfeestje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het trouwfeest is volgende maand.
The wedding reception is next month.
Kom je ook naar het trouwfeest?
Are you also coming to the wedding reception?
Het trouwfeest was heel gezellig.
The wedding reception was very enjoyable.
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 trouwfeest” rather than as “trouwfeest” 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.