de of het aantal?
het aantal
number
noun · /ˈaːn.tɑl/
It is “het aantal”. The plural is “de aantallen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: aantal
Forms
- Article
- het aantal
- Plural
- de aantallen
- Diminutive
- het aantalletje
- Also means
- countable amount, plurality, few
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Een aantal collega's werkt thuis.
Several colleagues work from home.
Het aantal inschrijvingen stijgt snel.
The number of registrations is rising quickly.
Dit is een klein aantal opties.
This is a small number of options.
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 aantal” rather than as “aantal” 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.