de of het bakboord?
het bakboord
port
noun · /ˈbɑk.boːrt/
It is “het bakboord”. The plural is “de bakboorden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bakboord
Forms
- Article
- het bakboord
- Plural
- de bakboorden
- Diminutive
- het bakboordje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Bakboord is altijd de linkerkant van het schip.
Port is always the left side of the ship.
Kijk, aan bakboord zie je de vuurtoren.
Look, on the port side you can see the lighthouse.
Het bakboord van de zeilboot heeft een rode streep.
The port side of the sailboat has a red stripe.
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 bakboord” rather than as “bakboord” 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.