de of het dagboek?
het dagboek
diary
noun · /ˈdɑxˌbuk/
It is “het dagboek”. The plural is “de dagboeken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dagboek
Forms
- Article
- het dagboek
- Plural
- de dagboeken
- Diminutive
- het dagboekje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik schrijf elke avond in mijn dagboek.
I write in my diary every evening.
Hij kocht een nieuw dagboek.
He bought a new diary.
Het dagboek lag open op de tafel.
The diary lay open on the table.
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 dagboek” rather than as “dagboek” 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.