de of het koor?
het koor
choir
noun · /koːr/
It is “het koor”. The plural is “de koren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: koor
Forms
- Article
- het koor
- Plural
- de koren
- Diminutive
- het koortje
- Also means
- vocal ensemble, chorus
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het koor zingt vanavond in de kerk.
The choir sings tonight in the church.
Zij is lid van een lokaal koor.
She is a member of a local choir.
De stemmen van het koor klonken prachtig.
The voices of the choir sounded beautiful.
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 koor” rather than as “koor” 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.