de of het journaal?
het journaal
TV
noun · /ʒurˈnaːl/
It is “het journaal”. The plural is “de journaals”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: journaal
Forms
- Article
- het journaal
- Plural
- de journaals
- Diminutive
- het journaaltje
- Also means
- radio news program
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik kijk elke avond naar het journaal.
I watch the news every evening.
Heb je het journaal vanavond gezien?
Did you see the news tonight?
Het journaal meldde belangrijk nieuws.
The news reported important news.
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 journaal” rather than as “journaal” 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.