de of het kenteken?
het kenteken
licence plate
noun
It is “het kenteken”. The plural is “de kentekens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kenteken
Forms
- Article
- het kenteken
- Plural
- de kentekens
- Diminutive
- het kentekentje
- Also means
- license plate number
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Wat is het kenteken van die auto?
What is the license plate of that car?
Noteer het kenteken snel.
Note down the license plate quickly.
Ik kon het kenteken niet goed lezen.
I couldn't read the license plate well.
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 kenteken” rather than as “kenteken” 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.