de of het familiebedrijf?
het familiebedrijf
family business
noun · /faːˈmi.li.bəˌdrɛi̯f/
It is “het familiebedrijf”. The plural is “de familiebedrijven”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: familiebedrijf
Forms
- Article
- het familiebedrijf
- Plural
- de familiebedrijven
- Diminutive
- het familiebedrijfje
- Also means
- by relatives
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ons bedrijf is een familiebedrijf.
Our company is a family business.
Hij nam het familiebedrijf over.
He took over the family business.
Een familiebedrijf heeft vaak een lange geschiedenis.
A family business often has a long history.
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 familiebedrijf” rather than as “familiebedrijf” 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.