de of het dijbeen?
het dijbeen
thighbone
noun · /ˈdɛi̯.beːn/
It is “het dijbeen”. The plural is “de dijbenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dijbeen
Forms
- Article
- het dijbeen
- Plural
- de dijbenen
- Diminutive
- het dijbeentje
- Also means
- femur
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij brak zijn dijbeen bij het skiën.
He broke his thighbone while skiing.
Het dijbeen is het langste bot in het menselijk lichaam.
The thighbone is the longest bone in the human body.
De dokter maakte een röntgenfoto van het dijbeen.
The doctor took an X-ray of the thighbone.
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 dijbeen” rather than as “dijbeen” 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.