de of het voetenwerk?
het voetenwerk
someone's footwork
noun
It is “het voetenwerk”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voetenwerk
Forms
- Article
- het voetenwerk
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Haar voetenwerk tijdens het dansen was indrukwekkend.
Her footwork during the dance was impressive.
De speler toonde uitstekend voetenwerk met de bal.
The player showed excellent footwork with the ball.
Goed voetenwerk is belangrijk om niet te vallen.
Good footwork is important not to fall.
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 voetenwerk” rather than as “voetenwerk” 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.