de of het label?
het label
quality label
noun · /ˈleːbəl/
It is “het label”. The plural is “de labels”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: label
Forms
- Article
- het label
- Plural
- de labels
- Diminutive
- het labeltje
- Also means
- music label
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Max Havelaar is het bekendste fair-tradelabel.
Max Havelaar is the most well-known fair-trade label.
Dit product heeft een eerlijk label.
This product has a fair label.
Ik zoek altijd naar het groene label.
I always look for the green label.
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 label” rather than as “label” 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.