de of het voorwoord?
het voorwoord
foreword
noun · /ˈvoːr.ʋoːrt/
It is “het voorwoord”. The plural is “de voorwoorden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voorwoord
Forms
- Article
- het voorwoord
- Plural
- de voorwoorden
- Diminutive
- het voorwoordje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik heb het voorwoord gelezen.
I have read the foreword.
Het voorwoord staat op pagina drie.
The foreword is on page three.
Lees eerst het voorwoord, dan de rest.
First read the foreword, then the rest.
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 voorwoord” rather than as “voorwoord” 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.