de of het douchegordijn?
het douchegordijn
shower curtain
noun · /ˈduʃ.xɔrˌdɛi̯n/
It is “het douchegordijn”. The plural is “de douchegordijnen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: douchegordijn
Forms
- Article
- het douchegordijn
- Plural
- de douchegordijnen
- Diminutive
- het douchegordijntje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het douchegordijn is vies en moet gewassen worden.
The shower curtain is dirty and needs to be washed.
Trek alsjeblieft het douchegordijn helemaal dicht.
Please pull the shower curtain completely shut.
Waarom plakt het douchegordijn altijd aan mijn benen?
Why does the shower curtain always stick to my legs?
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 douchegordijn” rather than as “douchegordijn” 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.