de of het humeur?
het humeur
mood
noun · /ɦyˈmøːr/
It is “het humeur”. The plural is “de humeuren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: humeur
Forms
- Article
- het humeur
- Plural
- de humeuren
- Diminutive
- het humeurtje
- Also means
- mental state
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Hij heeft vandaag een goed humeur.
He is in a good mood today.
In welk humeur ben jij vandaag?
What kind of mood are you in today?
Het weer beïnvloedt vaak mijn humeur.
The weather often influences my mood.
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 humeur” rather than as “humeur” 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.