de of het spreekuur?
het spreekuur
consulting hour
noun · /ˈspreːkyːr/
It is “het spreekuur”. The plural is “de spreekuren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: spreekuur
Forms
- Article
- het spreekuur
- Plural
- de spreekuren
- Diminutive
- het spreekuurtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het spreekuur is elke dinsdagmiddag.
The consulting hour is every Tuesday afternoon.
Hoe laat begint het spreekuur?
What time does the consulting hour start?
Ik moet naar het spreekuur van de huisarts.
I have to go to the general practitioner's consulting hour.
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 spreekuur” rather than as “spreekuur” 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.