de of het notitieboek?
het notitieboek
notebook
noun
It is “het notitieboek”. The plural is “de notitieboeken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: notitieboek
Forms
- Article
- het notitieboek
- Plural
- de notitieboeken
- Diminutive
- het notitieboekje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het notitieboek ligt op mijn bureau.
The notebook is on my desk.
Ik heb mijn notitieboek thuis laten liggen.
I left my notebook at home.
Koop jij een nieuw notitieboek voor school?
Are you buying a new notebook for school?
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 notitieboek” rather than as “notitieboek” 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.