de of het stembureau?
het stembureau
polling station
noun · /ˈstɛm.byˌroː/
It is “het stembureau”. The plural is “de stembureaus”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: stembureau
Forms
- Article
- het stembureau
- Plural
- de stembureaus
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Tijdens de verkiezingsdag werkte ze als vrijwilliger bij het stembureau.
During the election day, she worked as a volunteer at the polling station.
Zorg ervoor dat je weet waar je dichtstbijzijnde stembureau is voordat je gaat stemmen.
Make sure you know where your nearest polling station is before you go to vote.
Het stembureau was open van 7 uur 's ochtends tot 9 uur 's avonds.
The polling station was open from 7 am to 9 pm.
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 stembureau” rather than as “stembureau” 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.