de of het uurwerk?
het uurwerk
movement
noun · /ˈyːr.ʋɛrk/
It is “het uurwerk”. The plural is “de uurwerken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: uurwerk
Forms
- Article
- het uurwerk
- Plural
- de uurwerken
- Diminutive
- het uurwerkje
- Also means
- timekeeping mechanism
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het uurwerk van de klok is kapot.
The clock's mechanism is broken.
Hij toonde het complexe uurwerk.
He showed the complex mechanism.
De horlogemaker repareert het uurwerk.
The watchmaker repairs the movement.
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 uurwerk” rather than as “uurwerk” 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.