de of het vrijgezellenfeest?
het vrijgezellenfeest
bachelor party
noun · /vrɛi̯.ɣəˈzɛ.lə(n)ˌfeːst/
It is “het vrijgezellenfeest”. The plural is “de vrijgezellenfeesten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vrijgezellenfeest
Forms
- Article
- het vrijgezellenfeest
- Plural
- de vrijgezellenfeesten
- Diminutive
- het vrijgezellenfeestje
- Also means
- bachelorette party
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We organiseren een vrijgezellenfeest voor hem.
We are organizing a bachelor party for him.
Was het vrijgezellenfeest een succes?
Was the bachelor party a success?
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 vrijgezellenfeest” rather than as “vrijgezellenfeest” 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.