de of het persbureau?
het persbureau
news agency
noun
It is “het persbureau”. The plural is “de persbureaus”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: persbureau
Forms
- Article
- het persbureau
- Plural
- de persbureaus
- Diminutive
- het persbureautje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het persbureau meldde het nieuws snel.
The news agency reported the news quickly.
Zij werken voor een bekend persbureau.
They work for a well-known news agency.
Veel persbureaus delen hun bronnen.
Many news agencies share their sources.
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 persbureau” rather than as “persbureau” 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.