de of het koord?
het koord
rope
noun · /koːrt/
It is “het koord”. The plural is “de koorden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: koord
Forms
- Article
- het koord
- Plural
- de koorden
- Diminutive
- het koordje
- Also means
- cord
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik heb een koord nodig om dit pakket te binden.
I need a cord to tie this package.
Ze droeg een ketting aan een dun koordje.
She wore a necklace on a thin cord.
De acrobaat balanceerde op een strak koord.
The acrobat balanced on a tight rope.
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 koord” rather than as “koord” 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.