de of het adresboek?
het adresboek
address book
noun · /aːˈdrɛsˌbuk/
It is “het adresboek”. The plural is “de adresboeken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: adresboek
Forms
- Article
- het adresboek
- Plural
- de adresboeken
- Diminutive
- het adresboekje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het adresboek ligt op tafel.
The address book is on the table.
Vergeet je adresboek niet mee te nemen.
Don't forget to take your address book with you.
Zoek zijn nummer in het adresboek.
Look up his number in the address book.
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 adresboek” rather than as “adresboek” 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.