de of het eetcafé?
het eetcafé
bistro
noun · /ˈeːt.kaːˌfeː/
It is “het eetcafé”. The plural is “de eetcafés”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: eetcafé
Forms
- Article
- het eetcafé
- Plural
- de eetcafés
- Diminutive
- het eetcafeetje
- Also means
- diner
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Gisteren aten we in een leuk eetcafé.
Yesterday we ate in a nice bistro.
Is het eetcafé daar nog steeds open?
Is the bistro there still open?
Zullen we vanavond naar het eetcafé gaan?
Shall we go to the bistro tonight?
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 eetcafé” rather than as “eetcafé” 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.