de of het dorpshoofd?
het dorpshoofd
village chief
noun · /ˈdɔrps.ɦoːft/
It is “het dorpshoofd”. The plural is “de dorpshoofden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dorpshoofd
Forms
- Article
- het dorpshoofd
- Plural
- de dorpshoofden
- Also means
- village leader
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De man daar is het dorpshoofd.
The man there is the village chief.
Het dorpshoofd gaf een belangrijke toespraak.
The village chief gave an important speech.
Iedereen respecteert het dorpshoofd van dit dorp.
Everyone respects the village chief of this village.
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 dorpshoofd” rather than as “dorpshoofd” 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.