de of het fornuis?
het fornuis
cooker
noun · /fɔrˈnœy̯s/
It is “het fornuis”. The plural is “de fornuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: fornuis
Forms
- Article
- het fornuis
- Plural
- de fornuizen
- Diminutive
- het fornuisje
- Also means
- stove
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het fornuis is erg oud.
The cooker is very old.
Ik zet de pan op het fornuis.
I put the pan on the cooker.
Is het fornuis al schoon?
Is the cooker clean yet?
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 fornuis” rather than as “fornuis” 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.