de of het uithangbord?
het uithangbord
shop sign
noun · /ˈœy̯t.ɦɑŋˌbɔrt/
It is “het uithangbord”. The plural is “de uithangborden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: uithangbord
Forms
- Article
- het uithangbord
- Plural
- de uithangborden
- Diminutive
- het uithangbordje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het uithangbord hangt boven de deur.
The shop sign hangs above the door.
We moeten het uithangbord schoonmaken.
We need to clean the shop sign.
Het uithangbord van de bakker is kapot.
The baker's shop sign is broken.
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 uithangbord” rather than as “uithangbord” 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.