de of het najaar?
het najaar
fall
noun · /ˈnaː.jaːr/
It is “het najaar”. The plural is “de najaren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: najaar
Forms
- Article
- het najaar
- Plural
- de najaren
- Diminutive
- het najaartje
- Also means
- autumn
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het najaar is mijn favoriete seizoen.
Fall is my favorite season.
In het najaar vallen de bladeren van de bomen.
In the fall, the leaves fall from the trees.
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 najaar” rather than as “najaar” 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.