de of het videospel?
het videospel
video game
noun · /ˈvi.di.oːˌspɛl/
It is “het videospel”. The plural is “de videospellen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: videospel
Forms
- Article
- het videospel
- Plural
- de videospellen
- Diminutive
- het videospelletje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik speel vaak een videospel.
I often play a video game.
Veel videospellen zijn erg populair.
Many video games are very popular.
Het videospel was gisteren erg moeilijk.
The video game was very difficult yesterday.
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 videospel” rather than as “videospel” 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.