de of het dekbed?
het dekbed
duvet
noun · /ˈdɛk.bɛt/
It is “het dekbed”. The plural is “de dekbedden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dekbed
Forms
- Article
- het dekbed
- Plural
- de dekbedden
- Diminutive
- het dekbedje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik heb een nieuw dekbed gekocht voor de winter.
I bought a new duvet for the winter.
Ze houdt van haar donzen dekbed omdat het zo warm is.
She loves her feather duvet because it's so warm.
Kan je een dekbed in de wasmachine wassen?
Can you wash a duvet in the washing machine?
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 dekbed” rather than as “dekbed” 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.