de of het kanon?
het kanon
cannon
noun · /kaːˈnɔn/
It is “het kanon”. The plural is “de kanonnen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kanon
Forms
- Article
- het kanon
- Plural
- de kanonnen
- Diminutive
- het kanonnetje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het kanon staat op het dorpsplein.
The cannon stands on the village square.
Dit is een heel oud kanon.
This is a very old cannon.
De soldaten laadden het kanon.
The soldiers loaded the cannon.
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 kanon” rather than as “kanon” 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.