de of het prikbord?
het prikbord
notice board
noun
It is “het prikbord”. The plural is “de prikborden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: prikbord
Forms
- Article
- het prikbord
- Plural
- de prikborden
- Diminutive
- het prikbordje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het prikbord hangt in de gang.
The notice board hangs in the hallway.
Ik hang de poster op het prikbord.
I'm hanging the poster on the notice board.
Er staat een mededeling op het prikbord.
There is an announcement on the notice board.
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 prikbord” rather than as “prikbord” 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.