de of het voorwendsel?
het voorwendsel
pretense
noun · /ˈvoːrˌʋɛnt.səl/
It is “het voorwendsel”. The plural is “de voorwendselen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voorwendsel
Forms
- Article
- het voorwendsel
- Plural
- de voorwendselen
- Diminutive
- het voorwendseltje
- Also means
- excuse, pretext
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Zijn drukte was slechts een voorwendsel.
His busyness was merely a pretense.
Ze zocht een voorwendsel om niet te gaan.
She sought a pretense not to go.
Dat was een doorzichtig voorwendsel.
That was a transparent pretense.
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 voorwendsel” rather than as “voorwendsel” 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.