de of het venster?
het venster
window
noun · /ˈvɛn.stər/
It is “het venster”. The plural is “de vensters”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: venster
Forms
- Article
- het venster
- Plural
- de vensters
- Diminutive
- het venstertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het venster staat open.
The window is open.
Ik kijk graag uit het venster.
I like to look out the window.
Zij poetst het venster elke week.
She cleans the window every week.
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 venster” rather than as “venster” 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.