de of het kurk?
het kurk
cork
noun · /kʏrk/
It is “het kurk”. The plural is “de kurken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kurk
Forms
- Article
- het kurk
- Plural
- de kurken
- Diminutive
- het kurkje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De kurk zit los in de fles.
The cork is loose in the bottle.
De kurken lagen naast de fles.
The corks lay next to the bottle.
Kun je die kurk eruit halen?
Can you take that cork out?
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 kurk” rather than as “kurk” 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.