de of het etmaal?
het etmaal
day
noun · /ˈɛt.maːl/
It is “het etmaal”. The plural is “de etmalen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: etmaal
Forms
- Article
- het etmaal
- Plural
- de etmalen
- Diminutive
- het etmaaltje
- Also means
- nychthemeron
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het etmaal was bewolkt en regenachtig.
The day was cloudy and rainy.
Je moet dit twee keer per etmaal innemen.
You need to take this twice per day.
De bestelling arriveert binnen één etmaal.
The order will arrive within one day.
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 etmaal” rather than as “etmaal” 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.