de of het borstbeen?
het borstbeen
breastbone
noun · /ˈbɔrst.beːn/
It is “het borstbeen”. The plural is “de borstbeenderen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: borstbeen
Forms
- Article
- het borstbeen
- Plural
- de borstbeenderen
- Diminutive
- het borstbeentje
- Also means
- sternum
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het borstbeen zit midden in de borstkas.
The breastbone is in the middle of the ribcage.
Ik heb pijn aan mijn borstbeen.
I have pain in my breastbone.
De dokter voelde voorzichtig aan zijn borstbeen.
The doctor carefully felt his breastbone.
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 borstbeen” rather than as “borstbeen” 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.