de of het paleis?
het paleis
palace
noun · /paːˈlɛi̯s/
It is “het paleis”. The plural is “de paleizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: paleis
Forms
- Article
- het paleis
- Plural
- de paleizen
- Diminutive
- het paleisje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het paleis staat in het centrum van de stad.
The palace is located in the city center.
Heb je ooit een paleis bezocht?
Have you ever visited a palace?
De tuinen van het paleis zijn erg mooi.
The gardens of the palace are very beautiful.
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 paleis” rather than as “paleis” 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.