de of het dienstrooster?
het dienstrooster
duty roster
noun · /ˈdinstˌroːs.tər/
It is “het dienstrooster”. The plural is “de dienstroosters”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dienstrooster
Forms
- Article
- het dienstrooster
- Plural
- de dienstroosters
- Diminutive
- het dienstroostertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het dienstrooster hangt op het prikbord.
The duty roster is on the bulletin board.
Heb je het nieuwe dienstrooster al gezien?
Have you seen the new duty roster yet?
Ik moet het dienstrooster controleren.
I need to check the duty roster.
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 dienstrooster” rather than as “dienstrooster” 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.