de of het hoofd?
het hoofd
head
noun · /ɦoːft/
It is “het hoofd”. The plural is “de hoofden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: hoofd
Forms
- Article
- het hoofd
- Plural
- de hoofden
- Diminutive
- het hoofdje
- Also means
- chief, boss, transversal dam, oral sex
- How common
- among the 1,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het standbeeld had een groot bronzen hoofd.
The statue had a large bronze head.
Hij is de directeur en het hoofd van het bedrijf.
He is the director and the head of the company.
De burgemeester is het hoofd van de gemeente.
The mayor is the chief of the municipality.
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 hoofd” rather than as “hoofd” 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.