de of het attest?
het attest
certificate
noun · /ɑˈtɛst/
It is “het attest”. The plural is “de attesten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: attest
Forms
- Article
- het attest
- Plural
- de attesten
- Diminutive
- het attestje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik heb een doktersattest nodig voor mijn werk.
I need a doctor's certificate for my work.
Kunt u het attest even tonen?
Could you please show the certificate?
Na de cursus ontvingen we een attest van deelname.
After the course, we received a certificate of participation.
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 attest” rather than as “attest” 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.