de of het buitenland?
het buitenland
abroad
noun · /ˈbœy̯.tə(n)ˌlɑnt/
It is “het buitenland”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: buitenland
Forms
- Article
- het buitenland
- Also means
- all foreign countries, collectively, anything abroad
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Zij studeert in het buitenland.
She is studying abroad.
We gaan deze zomer naar het buitenland.
We are going abroad this summer.
Is hij al terug uit het buitenland?
Has he returned from abroad yet?
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 buitenland” rather than as “buitenland” 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.