de of het gangpad?
het gangpad
aisle
noun
It is “het gangpad”. The plural is “de gangpaden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: gangpad
Forms
- Article
- het gangpad
- Plural
- de gangpaden
- Diminutive
- het gangpaadje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Kan ik een stoel naast het gangpad hebben?
Can I have a seat next to the aisle?
De bruid liep door het gangpad naar het altaar.
The bride walked down the aisle to the altar.
In vliegtuigen is er meestal een smal gangpad tussen de stoelen.
In airplanes, there is usually a narrow aisle between the seats.
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 gangpad” rather than as “gangpad” 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.