de of het gastenboek?
het gastenboek
guest book
noun · /ˈɣɑs.tə(n)ˌbuk/
It is “het gastenboek”. The plural is “de gastenboeken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: gastenboek
Forms
- Article
- het gastenboek
- Plural
- de gastenboeken
- Diminutive
- het gastenboekje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Wil je iets in het gastenboek schrijven?
Would you like to write something in the guest book?
Het gastenboek ligt op de tafel.
The guest book is on the table.
Er staan leuke berichten in het gastenboek.
There are nice messages in the guest book.
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 gastenboek” rather than as “gastenboek” 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.