de of het huurcontract?
het huurcontract
lease
noun · /ˈɦyr.kɔnˌtrɑkt/
It is “het huurcontract”. The plural is “de huurcontracten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: huurcontract
Forms
- Article
- het huurcontract
- Plural
- de huurcontracten
- Diminutive
- het huurcontractje
- Also means
- rental contract
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Voordat je het appartement huurt, moet je een huurcontract ondertekenen.
Before you rent the apartment, you need to sign a lease agreement.
We hebben het huurcontract getekend.
We have signed the lease.
Het huurcontract loopt volgende maand af.
The lease expires next month.
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 huurcontract” rather than as “huurcontract” 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.