de of het appelsap?
het appelsap
apple juice
noun · /ˈɑ.pəlˌsɑp/
It is “het appelsap”. The plural is “de appelsappen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: appelsap
Forms
- Article
- het appelsap
- Plural
- de appelsappen
- Diminutive
- het appelsapje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Breng je een fles appelsap mee?
Can you bring a bottle of apple juice?
Ik neem een appelsapje.
I’ll have an apple juice.
Ik drink graag appelsap.
I like to drink apple juice.
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 appelsap” rather than as “appelsap” 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.