de of het tweetal?
het tweetal
pair
noun · /ˈtʋeː.tɑl/
It is “het tweetal”. The plural is “de tweetallen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tweetal
Forms
- Article
- het tweetal
- Plural
- de tweetallen
- Diminutive
- het tweetalletje
- Also means
- couple
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het tweetal werkte goed samen.
The pair worked well together.
Een tweetal studenten presenteerde het project.
A pair of students presented the project.
Het tweetal was al vroeg aanwezig.
The pair was already present early.
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 tweetal” rather than as “tweetal” 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.