An important question in predictive language processing is the extent to which prediction effects can reliably be measured on pre-nominal material (e.g., articles before nouns). Here, we present a close replication of a study by Otten and van Berkum [2009, Does working memory capacity affect the ability to predict upcoming words in discourse? *Brain Research, 1291*, 92–101. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.07.042]. They report ERP modulations in relation to the predictability of nouns in sentences, measured on gender-marked Dutch articles. We used nearly identical materials, procedures, and data analysis steps. We fail to replicate the original effect, but do observe a pattern consistent with the original data. Methodological differences between our replication and the original study that could potentially have contribute to the diverging results are discussed. In addition, we discuss the suitability of Dutch gender-marked determiners as a test-case for future studies of pre-activation of lexical items.