de of het bureel?
het bureel
office
noun · /byːˈreːl/
It is “het bureel”. The plural is “de burelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bureel
Forms
- Article
- het bureel
- Plural
- de burelen
- Diminutive
- het bureeltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het bureel is op de eerste verdieping.
The office is on the first floor.
Ik ga nu naar het bureel.
I am going to the office now.
Ons nieuw bureel heeft veel licht.
Our new office has a lot of light.
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 bureel” rather than as “bureel” 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.