de of het afschrikmiddel?
het afschrikmiddel
deterrent
noun · /ˈɑf.sxrɪkˌmɪ.dəl/
It is “het afschrikmiddel”. The plural is “de afschrikmiddelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: afschrikmiddel
Forms
- Article
- het afschrikmiddel
- Plural
- de afschrikmiddelen
- Diminutive
- het afschrikmiddeltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Een hek is een goed afschrikmiddel.
A fence is a good deterrent.
Het afschrikmiddel werkte helaas niet.
The deterrent unfortunately didn't work.
We installeren een nieuw afschrikmiddel.
We are installing a new deterrent.
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 afschrikmiddel” rather than as “afschrikmiddel” 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.