de of het bouwterrein?
het bouwterrein
building site
noun · /ˈbɑu̯.tɛˌrɛi̯n/
It is “het bouwterrein”. The plural is “de bouwterreinen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bouwterrein
Forms
- Article
- het bouwterrein
- Plural
- de bouwterreinen
- Diminutive
- het bouwterreintje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het bouwterrein was afgezet met hekken.
The building site was cordoned off with fences.
Er is een nieuw bouwterrein in de buurt.
There is a new building site in the neighborhood.
De arbeiders waren druk bezig op het bouwterrein.
The workers were busy on the building site.
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 bouwterrein” rather than as “bouwterrein” 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.