de of het toetsenbord?
het toetsenbord
keyboard
noun · /ˈtut.sə(n)ˌbɔrt/
It is “het toetsenbord”. The plural is “de toetsenborden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: toetsenbord
Forms
- Article
- het toetsenbord
- Plural
- de toetsenborden
- Diminutive
- het toetsenbordje
- Also means
- typewriter's keyboard
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het toetsenbord is vies.
The keyboard is dirty.
Ik typ elke dag op het toetsenbord.
I type on the keyboard every day.
Ik wil een nieuw toetsenbord kopen.
I want to buy a new keyboard.
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 toetsenbord” rather than as “toetsenbord” 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.