de of het krat?
het krat
crate
noun · /krɑt/
It is “het krat”. The plural is “de kratten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: krat
Forms
- Article
- het krat
- Plural
- de kratten
- Diminutive
- het kratje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik koop een krat bier voor het feest.
I'm buying a crate of beer for the party.
Zet het lege krat maar in de schuur.
Just put the empty crate in the shed.
Kun jij dat zware krat even tillen?
Can you lift that heavy crate for a moment?
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 krat” rather than as “krat” 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.