de of het boogschieten?
het boogschieten
archery
noun · /ˈboːxˌsxitə(n)/
It is “het boogschieten”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: boogschieten
Forms
- Article
- het boogschieten
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het boogschieten is een leuke sport.
Archery is a fun sport.
Wij doen elke zaterdag aan boogschieten.
We do archery every Saturday.
Het boogschieten begint over tien minuten.
The archery starts in ten minutes.
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 boogschieten” rather than as “boogschieten” 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.