de of het lesuur?
het lesuur
hour for lecture
noun
It is “het lesuur”. The plural is “de lesuren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: lesuur
Forms
- Article
- het lesuur
- Plural
- de lesuren
- Diminutive
- het lesuurtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het lesuur begint zo.
The lesson hour starts soon.
Hoe lang duurt een lesuur?
How long does a lesson hour last?
Het laatste lesuur was erg interessant.
The last lesson hour was very interesting.
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 lesuur” rather than as “lesuur” 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.