de of het voorval?
het voorval
incident
noun · /ˈvoːr.vɑl/
It is “het voorval”. The plural is “de voorvallen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voorval
Forms
- Article
- het voorval
- Plural
- de voorvallen
- Diminutive
- het voorvalletje
- Also means
- event
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het voorval was erg ongemakkelijk.
The incident was very awkward.
Wat weet jij precies over het voorval?
What exactly do you know about the incident?
Na het voorval bleef iedereen stil.
After the incident, everyone remained silent.
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 voorval” rather than as “voorval” 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.