de of het postkantoor?
het postkantoor
post office
noun · /ˈpɔst.kɑnˌtoːr/
It is “het postkantoor”. The plural is “de postkantoren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: postkantoor
Forms
- Article
- het postkantoor
- Plural
- de postkantoren
- Diminutive
- het postkantoortje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Waar is het postkantoor in dit dorp?
Where is the post office in this village?
Ik moet een brief posten bij het postkantoor.
I need to post a letter at the post office.
Het postkantoor was gisteren onverwacht gesloten.
The post office was unexpectedly closed yesterday.
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 postkantoor” rather than as “postkantoor” 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.