de of het leerjaar?
het leerjaar
academic year
noun · /ˈleːr.jaːr/
It is “het leerjaar”. The plural is “de leerjaren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: leerjaar
Forms
- Article
- het leerjaar
- Plural
- de leerjaren
- Diminutive
- het leerjaartje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit leerjaar is erg intensief.
This academic year is very intensive.
Het nieuwe leerjaar begint volgende week.
The new academic year starts next week.
We hebben veel projecten dit leerjaar.
We have many projects this academic year.
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 leerjaar” rather than as “leerjaar” 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.