de of het reclamebord?
het reclamebord
advertising billboard
noun · /rəˈklaː.məˌbɔrt/
It is “het reclamebord”. The plural is “de reclameborden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: reclamebord
Forms
- Article
- het reclamebord
- Plural
- de reclameborden
- Diminutive
- het reclamebordje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het reclamebord was felverlicht in het donker.
The billboard was brightly lit in the dark.
Langs de snelweg stond een enorm reclamebord.
Along the highway stood an enormous billboard.
Ze vervingen het oude reclamebord door een nieuwe.
They replaced the old billboard with a new one.
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 reclamebord” rather than as “reclamebord” 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.