de of het schoolbord?
het schoolbord
blackboard
noun
It is “het schoolbord”. The plural is “de schoolborden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: schoolbord
Forms
- Article
- het schoolbord
- Plural
- de schoolborden
- Diminutive
- het schoolbordje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De leraar schreef de som op het schoolbord.
The teacher wrote the sum on the blackboard.
Het schoolbord hangt vooraan in het klaslokaal.
The blackboard hangs at the front of the classroom.
Kijk goed naar het schoolbord voor de opdracht.
Look carefully at the blackboard for the assignment.
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 schoolbord” rather than as “schoolbord” 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.