de of het karton?
het karton
cardboard
noun · /kɑrˈtɔn/
It is “het karton”. The plural is “de kartons”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: karton
Forms
- Article
- het karton
- Plural
- de kartons
- Diminutive
- het kartonnetje
- Also means
- paperboard, cardboard package
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Gooi het karton in de papierbak.
Throw the cardboard in the paper bin.
Is dit karton sterk genoeg?
Is this cardboard strong enough?
Ze maakte een huisje van karton.
She made a little house out of cardboard.
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 karton” rather than as “karton” 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.