de of het fluweel?
het fluweel
velvet
noun · /flyˈ(ʋ)eːl/
It is “het fluweel”. The plural is “de fluwelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: fluweel
Forms
- Article
- het fluweel
- Plural
- de fluwelen
- Diminutive
- het fluweeltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De zitting van die stoel is van fluweel.
The seat of that chair is made of velvet.
Hij aaide voorzichtig over het fluweel.
He carefully stroked the velvet.
De stof voelt zo zacht als fluweel.
The fabric feels as soft as velvet.
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 fluweel” rather than as “fluweel” 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.