de of het jaarboek?
het jaarboek
yearbook
noun · /ˈjaːr.buk/
It is “het jaarboek”. The plural is “de jaarboeken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: jaarboek
Forms
- Article
- het jaarboek
- Plural
- de jaarboeken
- Diminutive
- het jaarboekje
- Also means
- annals, chronicle
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
In het jaarboek van de school staan foto's en herinneringen van het afgelopen schooljaar.
In the school yearbook, there are photos and memories from the past academic year.
De geschiedenis van de stad wordt vastgelegd in de jaarboeken van de lokale archieven.
The history of the city is recorded in the annals of the local archives.
Het jaarboek van school is eindelijk klaar.
The school yearbook is finally ready.
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 jaarboek” rather than as “jaarboek” 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.