de of het agentschap?
het agentschap
agency
noun · /aːˈɣɛnt.sxɑp/
It is “het agentschap”. The plural is “de agentschappen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: agentschap
Forms
- Article
- het agentschap
- Plural
- de agentschappen
- Diminutive
- het agentschapje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het agentschap is morgen open.
The agency is open tomorrow.
Zij werkt voor een reisagentschap.
She works for a travel agency.
Het agentschap zoekt nieuwe medewerkers.
The agency is looking for new employees.
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 agentschap” rather than as “agentschap” 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.