de of het bovenbeen?
het bovenbeen
thigh
noun
It is “het bovenbeen”. The plural is “de bovenbenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bovenbeen
Forms
- Article
- het bovenbeen
- Plural
- de bovenbenen
- Diminutive
- het bovenbeentje
- Also means
- upper leg
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik heb pijn aan mijn rechter bovenbeen.
I have pain in my right thigh.
Haar spijkerbroek was gescheurd bij het bovenbeen.
Her jeans were torn at the thigh.
De voetballer hield de bal met zijn bovenbeen hoog.
The footballer kept the ball up with his thigh.
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 bovenbeen” rather than as “bovenbeen” 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.