de of het werkwoord?
het werkwoord
verb
noun · /ˈʋɛr(ə)kˌʋoːrt/
It is “het werkwoord”. The plural is “de werkwoorden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: werkwoord
Forms
- Article
- het werkwoord
- Plural
- de werkwoorden
- Diminutive
- het werkwoordje
- Also means
- ongoing process
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Een werkwoord beschrijft een actie of toestand.
A verb describes an action or state.
Is 'lezen' het werkwoord in deze zin?
Is 'to read' the verb in this sentence?
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 werkwoord” rather than as “werkwoord” 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.