de of het loket?
het loket
ticket window
noun · /loːˈkɛt/
It is “het loket”. The plural is “de loketten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: loket
Forms
- Article
- het loket
- Plural
- de loketten
- Diminutive
- het loketje
- Also means
- counter, office
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik koop mijn treinkaartje bij het loket.
I buy my train ticket at the ticket window.
Het loket voor informatie is daar.
The information desk is over there.
Het loket is al geopend.
The ticket window is already open.
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 loket” rather than as “loket” 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.