de of het halssnoer?
het halssnoer
necklace
noun · /ˈɦɑl.snur/
It is “het halssnoer”. The plural is “de halssnoeren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: halssnoer
Forms
- Article
- het halssnoer
- Plural
- de halssnoeren
- Diminutive
- het halssnoertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ze draagt een prachtig halssnoer.
She is wearing a beautiful necklace.
Is dit jouw gouden halssnoer?
Is this your golden necklace?
Hij gaf haar een zilveren halssnoer.
He gave her a silver necklace.
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 halssnoer” rather than as “halssnoer” 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.