de of het noordoosten?
het noordoosten
northeast
noun
It is “het noordoosten”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: noordoosten
Forms
- Article
- het noordoosten
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De wind komt uit het noordoosten.
The wind comes from the northeast.
De stad ligt in het noordoosten van het land.
The city is located in the northeast of the country.
We rijden richting het noordoosten.
We are driving towards the northeast.
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 noordoosten” rather than as “noordoosten” 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.