de of het handvat?
het handvat
handle
noun
It is “het handvat”. The plural is “de handvatten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: handvat
Forms
- Article
- het handvat
- Plural
- de handvatten
- Diminutive
- het handvatje
- Also means
- grip
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het handvat van de tas is stevig.
The handle of the bag is sturdy.
Ik pakte het handvat vast om de deur te openen.
I grabbed the handle to open the door.
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 handvat” rather than as “handvat” 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.