de of het strafblad?
het strafblad
criminal record
noun
It is “het strafblad”. The plural is “de strafbladen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: strafblad
Forms
- Article
- het strafblad
- Plural
- de strafbladen
- Diminutive
- het strafblaadje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Door die diefstal kreeg hij een strafblad.
Because of that theft, he got a criminal record.
Met een strafblad is een visum vaak moeilijk.
With a criminal record, a visa is often difficult.
De werkgever controleerde altijd het strafblad.
The employer always checked the criminal record.
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 strafblad” rather than as “strafblad” 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.