de of het tarief?
het tarief
fee
noun · /taːˈrif/
It is “het tarief”. The plural is “de tarieven”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tarief
Forms
- Article
- het tarief
- Plural
- de tarieven
- Diminutive
- het tariefje
- Also means
- rate
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Wat is het tarief voor deze dienst?
What is the fee for this service?
Het standaard tarief is vrij hoog.
The standard rate is quite high.
Het nieuwe tarief gaat morgen in.
The new rate starts tomorrow.
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 tarief” rather than as “tarief” 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.