de of het voorgerecht?
het voorgerecht
starter
noun · /ˈvoːr.ɣəˌrɛxt/
It is “het voorgerecht”. The plural is “de voorgerechten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voorgerecht
Forms
- Article
- het voorgerecht
- Plural
- de voorgerechten
- Diminutive
- het voorgerechtje
- Also means
- entrée
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Wat is het voorgerecht van vandaag?
What is today's starter?
Ik neem het voorgerecht met de garnalen.
I'll take the starter with the shrimp.
Het voorgerecht was heerlijk en licht.
The starter was delicious and light.
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 voorgerecht” rather than as “voorgerecht” 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.