de of het kaliber?
het kaliber
calibre
noun
It is “het kaliber”. The plural is “de kalibers”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kaliber
Forms
- Article
- het kaliber
- Plural
- de kalibers
- Diminutive
- het kalibertje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Zij is echt een vrouw van kaliber.
She is truly a woman of caliber.
Ik had dit kaliber werk niet verwacht.
I did not expect this caliber of work.
Mensen van zijn kaliber zie je zelden.
You rarely see people of his caliber.
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 kaliber” rather than as “kaliber” 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.