de of het jonkie?
het jonkie
youngling
noun · /ˈjɔŋ.ki/
It is “het jonkie”. The plural is “de jonkies”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: jonkie
Forms
- Article
- het jonkie
- Plural
- de jonkies
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het jonkie volgt zijn moeder overal naartoe.
The youngling follows its mother everywhere.
Geef het kleine jonkie een koekje, alsjeblieft.
Please give the little youngling a cookie.
Ons jonkie scoorde net zijn eerste doelpunt.
Our youngling just scored his first goal.
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 jonkie” rather than as “jonkie” 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.