de of het aardoppervlak?
het aardoppervlak
Earth's surface
noun · /ˈaːrtˌɔ.pər.vlɑk/
It is “het aardoppervlak”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: aardoppervlak
Forms
- Article
- het aardoppervlak
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het water bedekt een groot deel van het aardoppervlak.
Water covers a large part of the Earth's surface.
Er zijn veel bergen op het aardoppervlak.
There are many mountains on the Earth's surface.
De zon verwarmt het aardoppervlak elke dag.
The sun warms the Earth's surface every day.
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 aardoppervlak” rather than as “aardoppervlak” 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.