de of het honk?
het honk
base
noun · /ɦɔŋk/
It is “het honk”. The plural is “de honken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: honk
Forms
- Article
- het honk
- Plural
- de honken
- Diminutive
- het honkje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij rent snel naar het tweede honk.
He quickly runs to second base.
De speler staat veilig op het honk.
The player is safely on base.
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 honk” rather than as “honk” 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.