de of het graafschap?
het graafschap
county
noun
It is “het graafschap”. The plural is “de graafschappen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: graafschap
Forms
- Article
- het graafschap
- Plural
- de graafschappen
- Diminutive
- het graafschapje
- Also means
- shire
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het graafschap Durham ligt in Engeland.
The county of Durham is located in England.
Zij woont al jaren in een graafschap.
She has lived in a county for years.
Ken je dat oude graafschap nog?
Do you still know that old county?
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 graafschap” rather than as “graafschap” 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.