de of het dienblad?
het dienblad
service tray
noun · /ˈdin.blɑt/
It is “het dienblad”. The plural is “de dienbladen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dienblad
Forms
- Article
- het dienblad
- Plural
- de dienbladen
- Diminutive
- het dienblaadje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Zij liet haar dienblad vallen en het kostelijke eten belandde op de vloer.
She dropped her tray and the delicious food landed on the floor.
Ze droeg het dienblad naar de keuken.
She carried the tray to the kitchen.
Zet jij het dienblad op tafel?
Will you put the tray 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 dienblad” rather than as “dienblad” 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.