de of het politiebureau?
het politiebureau
police station
noun · /poːˈli.(t)si.byˌroː/
It is “het politiebureau”. The plural is “de politiebureaus”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: politiebureau
Forms
- Article
- het politiebureau
- Plural
- de politiebureaus
- Diminutive
- het politiebureautje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het politiebureau is hier om de hoek.
The police station is just around the corner here.
Ik moet naar het politiebureau voor mijn paspoort.
I have to go to the police station for my passport.
Bel het politiebureau als je hulp nodig hebt.
Call the police station if you need help.
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 politiebureau” rather than as “politiebureau” 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.