de of het voetbalteam?
het voetbalteam
soccer team
noun · /ˈvut.bɑlˌtiːm/
It is “het voetbalteam”. The plural is “de voetbalteams”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voetbalteam
Forms
- Article
- het voetbalteam
- Plural
- de voetbalteams
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het voetbalteam traint elke dinsdag.
The soccer team trains every Tuesday.
Ik ken het voetbalteam goed.
I know the soccer team well.
De trainer van het voetbalteam is nieuw.
The coach of the soccer team is new.
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 voetbalteam” rather than as “voetbalteam” 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.