de of het uitzendbureau?
het uitzendbureau
employment agency
noun
It is “het uitzendbureau”. The plural is “de uitzendbureaus”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: uitzendbureau
Forms
- Article
- het uitzendbureau
- Plural
- de uitzendbureaus
- Diminutive
- het uitzendbureautje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik zoek werk via een uitzendbureau.
I'm looking for work through an employment agency.
Het uitzendbureau heeft veel vacatures.
The employment agency has many job openings.
Welk uitzendbureau adviseer jij?
Which employment agency do you recommend?
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 uitzendbureau” rather than as “uitzendbureau” 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.