de of het gasmasker?
het gasmasker
gas mask
noun · /ˈɣɑsˌmɑs.kər/
It is “het gasmasker”. The plural is “de gasmaskers”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: gasmasker
Forms
- Article
- het gasmasker
- Plural
- de gasmaskers
- Diminutive
- het gasmaskertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij droeg een gasmasker.
He wore a gas mask.
Er lag een gasmasker onder het bed.
There was a gas mask under the bed.
We moeten het gasmasker controleren.
We need to check the gas mask.
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 gasmasker” rather than as “gasmasker” 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.