de of het wegrestaurant?
het wegrestaurant
roadside restaurant
noun · /ˈʋɛx.rɛs.toːˌrɑnt/
It is “het wegrestaurant”. The plural is “de wegrestaurants”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: wegrestaurant
Forms
- Article
- het wegrestaurant
- Plural
- de wegrestaurants
- Diminutive
- het wegrestaurantje
- Also means
- roadside diner
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het wegrestaurant was al gesloten.
The roadside restaurant was already closed.
We aten bij een gezellig wegrestaurant.
We ate at a cozy roadside restaurant.
Welk wegrestaurant heeft de beste koffie?
Which roadside restaurant has the best coffee?
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 wegrestaurant” rather than as “wegrestaurant” 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.