de of het politiekantoor?
het politiekantoor
police station
noun · /poːˈli.(t)si.kɑnˌtoːr/
It is “het politiekantoor”. The plural is “de politiekantoren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: politiekantoor
Forms
- Article
- het politiekantoor
- Plural
- de politiekantoren
- Diminutive
- het politiekantoortje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het politiekantoor is om de hoek.
The police station is around the corner.
We moeten naar het politiekantoor gaan.
We have to go to the police station.
Hij werkt bij het politiekantoor.
He works at the police station.
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 politiekantoor” rather than as “politiekantoor” 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.