de of het erfstuk?
het erfstuk
heirloom
noun · /ˈɛrf.stʏk/
It is “het erfstuk”. The plural is “de erfstukken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: erfstuk
Forms
- Article
- het erfstuk
- Plural
- de erfstukken
- Diminutive
- het erfstukje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit horloge is een erfstuk.
This watch is an heirloom.
Ik heb een oud erfstuk van mijn oma.
I have an old heirloom from my grandma.
Het erfstuk heeft veel emotionele waarde.
The heirloom has a lot of emotional value.
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 erfstuk” rather than as “erfstuk” 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.