de of het handelsmerk?
het handelsmerk
trade mark
noun
It is “het handelsmerk”. The plural is “de handelsmerken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: handelsmerk
Forms
- Article
- het handelsmerk
- Plural
- de handelsmerken
- Diminutive
- het handelsmerkje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dat logo is het handelsmerk van het bedrijf.
That logo is the company's trademark.
Vriendelijkheid is haar persoonlijke handelsmerk.
Friendliness is her personal trademark.
Ze hebben het handelsmerk laten registreren.
They had the trademark registered.
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 handelsmerk” rather than as “handelsmerk” 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.