de of het rijbewijs?
het rijbewijs
driver's license
noun · /ˈrɛi̯.bəˌʋɛi̯s/
It is “het rijbewijs”. The plural is “de rijbewijzen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: rijbewijs
Forms
- Article
- het rijbewijs
- Plural
- de rijbewijzen
- Diminutive
- het rijbewijsje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik ben bezig met mijn rijbewijs.
I am busy with my driver's license.
Heb jij al een rijbewijs?
Do you already have a driver's license?
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 rijbewijs” rather than as “rijbewijs” 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.