de of het erts?
het erts
ore
noun · /ɛrts/
It is “het erts”. The plural is “de ertsen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: erts
Forms
- Article
- het erts
- Plural
- de ertsen
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
In de mijn vonden ze veel erts.
In the mine, they found a lot of ore.
Het erts wordt hier verwerkt tot metaal.
The ore is processed into metal here.
IJzererts is een belangrijk exportproduct.
Iron ore is an an important export product.
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 erts” rather than as “erts” 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.