de of het bakkes?
het bakkes
face
noun · /ˈbɑ.kəs/
It is “het bakkes”. The plural is “de bakkesen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bakkes
Forms
- Article
- het bakkes
- Plural
- de bakkesen
- Diminutive
- het bakkesje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hou je bakkes dicht!
Shut your trap!
Hij kreeg een klap op zijn bakkes.
He got a punch in the face.
Wat een vies bakkes heb jij!
What a dirty face you have!
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 bakkes” rather than as “bakkes” 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.