de of het exemplaar?
het exemplaar
copy
noun · /ˌɛk.səmˈplaːr/
It is “het exemplaar”. The plural is “de exemplaren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: exemplaar
Forms
- Article
- het exemplaar
- Plural
- de exemplaren
- Diminutive
- het exemplaartje
- Also means
- sample, instance, specimen
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik heb dit exemplaar al gelezen.
I have already read this copy.
Dit is een heel mooi exemplaar van het boek.
This is a very beautiful copy of the book.
Mag ik dit exemplaar even bekijken?
May I take a look at this copy?
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 exemplaar” rather than as “exemplaar” 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.