de of het autokerkhof?
het autokerkhof
car graveyard
noun · /ˈɑu̯.toːˌkɛrk.ɦɔf/
It is “het autokerkhof”. The plural is “de autokerkhoven”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: autokerkhof
Forms
- Article
- het autokerkhof
- Plural
- de autokerkhoven
- Diminutive
- het autokerkhofje
- Also means
- car cemetery, car scrapyard
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het autokerkhof ligt buiten de stad.
The car graveyard is located outside the city.
Op het autokerkhof zoeken ze naar onderdelen.
At the car graveyard, they look for parts.
Mijn kapotte auto ging naar het autokerkhof.
My broken car went to the car graveyard.
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 autokerkhof” rather than as “autokerkhof” 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.