de of het bruggenhoofd?
het bruggenhoofd
bridgehead
noun · /ˈbrʏ.ɣə(n)ˌɦoːft/
It is “het bruggenhoofd”. The plural is “de bruggenhoofden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bruggenhoofd
Forms
- Article
- het bruggenhoofd
- Plural
- de bruggenhoofden
- Diminutive
- het bruggenhoofdje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De soldaten veroverden het bruggenhoofd.
The soldiers captured the bridgehead.
Dit nieuwe kantoor is ons bruggenhoofd in Azië.
This new office is our bridgehead in Asia.
De actiegroep vestigde een bruggenhoofd in de stad.
The action group established a bridgehead in the city.
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 bruggenhoofd” rather than as “bruggenhoofd” 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.