de of het potlood?
het potlood
pencil
noun · /ˈpɔt.loːt/
It is “het potlood”. The plural is “de potloden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: potlood
Forms
- Article
- het potlood
- Plural
- de potloden
- Diminutive
- het potloodje
- Also means
- graphite, graphite powder
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Waar is mijn potlood gebleven?
Where has my pencil gone?
Ik schrijf mijn naam met dit potlood.
I write my name with this pencil.
Mag ik even jouw potlood lenen?
May I borrow your pencil for a moment?
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 potlood” rather than as “potlood” 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.