de of het zakhorloge?
het zakhorloge
pocket watch
noun · /ˈzɑk.ɦɔrˌloː.ʒə/
It is “het zakhorloge”. The plural is “de zakhorloges”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zakhorloge
Forms
- Article
- het zakhorloge
- Plural
- de zakhorloges
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Mijn opa had een prachtig zakhorloge.
My grandfather had a beautiful pocket watch.
Hij keek op zijn zakhorloge voor de tijd.
He looked at his pocket watch for the time.
Dit is het zakhorloge dat ik van mijn oma kreeg.
This is the pocket watch I got from my grandmother.
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 zakhorloge” rather than as “zakhorloge” 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.