de of het bureau?
het bureau
desk
noun · /byˈroː/
It is “het bureau”. The plural is “de bureaus”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bureau
Forms
- Article
- het bureau
- Plural
- de bureaus
- Diminutive
- het bureautje
- Also means
- office, office building, agency, company
- How common
- among the 1,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het boek ligt op het bureau.
The book is on the desk.
Ik werk elke dag aan mijn bureau.
I work at my desk every day.
Dit bureau is erg netjes.
This desk is very tidy.
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 bureau” rather than as “bureau” 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.