de of het dierenasiel?
het dierenasiel
animal shelter
noun · /ˈdi.rə(n).aːˌzil/
It is “het dierenasiel”. The plural is “de dierenasiels”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dierenasiel
Forms
- Article
- het dierenasiel
- Plural
- de dierenasiels
- Diminutive
- het dierenasieltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het dierenasiel zoekt vrijwilligers.
The animal shelter is looking for volunteers.
We brengen de kat naar het dierenasiel.
We are taking the cat to the animal shelter.
Ze adopteerde een hond uit het dierenasiel.
She adopted a dog from the animal shelter.
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 dierenasiel” rather than as “dierenasiel” 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.