de of het overhemd?
het overhemd
shirt
noun · /ˈoː.vərˌɦɛmt/
It is “het overhemd”. The plural is “de overhemden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: overhemd
Forms
- Article
- het overhemd
- Plural
- de overhemden
- Diminutive
- het overhemdje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het overhemd is schoon en gestreken.
The shirt is clean and ironed.
Ik moet een nieuw overhemd kopen.
I need to buy a new shirt.
Waar is mijn witte overhemd gebleven?
Where has my white shirt gone?
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 overhemd” rather than as “overhemd” 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.