de of het vak?
het vak
subject
noun · /vɑk/
It is “het vak”. The plural is “de vakken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vak
Forms
- Article
- het vak
- Plural
- de vakken
- Diminutive
- het vakje
- Also means
- compartment, discipline, class, notably in education, profession
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Mijn favoriete vak is geschiedenis.
My favorite subject is history.
Welk vak heb jij dit jaar?
Which subject do you have this year?
Ik vind wiskunde een moeilijk vak.
I find mathematics a difficult subject.
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 vak” rather than as “vak” 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.