de of het urinoir?
het urinoir
urinal
noun · /ˌy.riˈnʋaːr/
It is “het urinoir”. The plural is “de urinoirs”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: urinoir
Forms
- Article
- het urinoir
- Plural
- de urinoirs
- Diminutive
- het urinoirtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Op dit toilet is er één urinoir.
On this toilet there is one urinal.
Hij zoekt een vrij urinoir.
He is looking for a free urinal.
Het urinoir was verstopt.
The urinal was clogged.
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 urinoir” rather than as “urinoir” 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.