de of het alarmnummer?
het alarmnummer
emergency number
noun · /aːˈlɑrmˌnʏ.mər/
It is “het alarmnummer”. The plural is “de alarmnummers”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: alarmnummer
Forms
- Article
- het alarmnummer
- Plural
- de alarmnummers
- Diminutive
- het alarmnummertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Onthoud het alarmnummer voor noodgevallen.
Remember the emergency number for emergencies.
Weet jij het alarmnummer uit je hoofd?
Do you know the emergency number by heart?
Bel alleen het alarmnummer bij echte nood.
Only call the emergency number in a real emergency.
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 alarmnummer” rather than as “alarmnummer” 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.