de of het handschrift?
het handschrift
handwriting
noun · /ˈɦɑnt.sxrɪft/
It is “het handschrift”. The plural is “de handschriften”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: handschrift
Forms
- Article
- het handschrift
- Plural
- de handschriften
- Diminutive
- het handschriftje
- Also means
- manuscript
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Haar handschrift is heel netjes.
Her handwriting is very neat.
Zijn handschrift was bijna onleesbaar.
His handwriting was almost unreadable.
Ik herkende meteen jouw handschrift.
I immediately recognized your handwriting.
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 handschrift” rather than as “handschrift” 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.