de of het volkslied?
het volkslied
national anthem
noun · /ˈvɔlks.lit/
It is “het volkslied”. The plural is “de volksliederen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: volkslied
Forms
- Article
- het volkslied
- Plural
- de volksliederen
- Diminutive
- het volksliedje
- Also means
- level of government, folk song
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Tijdens de wedstrijd klonk het volkslied.
During the match, the national anthem played.
Alle fans zongen luid het volkslied mee.
All the fans loudly sang along with the national anthem.
Kinderen leren het volkslied op de basisschool.
Children learn the national anthem at primary school.
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 volkslied” rather than as “volkslied” 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.