de of het erfgoed?
het erfgoed
heritage
noun · /ˈɛrf.xut/
It is “het erfgoed”. The plural is “de erfgoederen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: erfgoed
Forms
- Article
- het erfgoed
- Plural
- de erfgoederen
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is belangrijk cultureel erfgoed.
This is important cultural heritage.
We moeten ons erfgoed beschermen.
We must protect our heritage.
De stad is trots op haar erfgoed.
The city is proud of its heritage.
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 erfgoed” rather than as “erfgoed” 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.