de of het filiaal?
het filiaal
branch
noun · /filiaːl/
It is “het filiaal”. The plural is “de filialen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: filiaal
Forms
- Article
- het filiaal
- Plural
- de filialen
- Diminutive
- het filiaaltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het filiaal is morgen geopend.
The branch is open tomorrow.
Waar is het dichtstbijzijnde filiaal?
Where is the nearest branch?
Ik moet naar het filiaal van de bank.
I need to go to the bank's branch.
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 filiaal” rather than as “filiaal” 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.