de of het konvooi?
het konvooi
convoy
noun · /kɔnˈvoːi̯/
It is “het konvooi”. The plural is “de konvooien”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: konvooi
Forms
- Article
- het konvooi
- Plural
- de konvooien
- Diminutive
- het konvooitje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het konvooi reed langzaam over de brug.
The convoy drove slowly over the bridge.
We wachten op het konvooi met hulpgoederen.
We are waiting for the convoy with aid supplies.
Ik zag een lang konvooi op de snelweg.
I saw a long convoy on the highway.
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 konvooi” rather than as “konvooi” 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.