de of het kladblok?
het kladblok
notepad
noun · /ˈklɑtˌblɔk/
It is “het kladblok”. The plural is “de kladblokken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kladblok
Forms
- Article
- het kladblok
- Plural
- de kladblokken
- Diminutive
- het kladblokje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Waar heb je het kladblok gelaten?
Where did you leave the notepad?
Schrijf je ideeën op een kladblok.
Write your ideas on a notepad.
Het kladblok heeft nog veel lege pagina's.
The notepad still has many empty pages.
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 kladblok” rather than as “kladblok” 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.