de of het voordeel?
het voordeel
advantage
noun · /ˈvoːr.deːl/
It is “het voordeel”. The plural is “de voordelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voordeel
Forms
- Article
- het voordeel
- Plural
- de voordelen
- Diminutive
- het voordeeltje
- Also means
- front part
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Elk nadeel heeft zijn voordeel.
Every disadvantage has its advantage.
Het grootste voordeel is de flexibiliteit.
The biggest advantage is the flexibility.
Met deze kennis heb je een voordeel.
With this knowledge, you have an advantage.
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 voordeel” rather than as “voordeel” 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.