de of het gazon?
het gazon
lawn
noun · /ɣaːˈzɔn/
It is “het gazon”. The plural is “de gazons”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: gazon
Forms
- Article
- het gazon
- Plural
- de gazons
- Diminutive
- het gazonnetje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij maait het gazon elke zaterdag.
He mows the lawn every Saturday.
De kinderen spelen graag op het gazon.
The children like to play on the lawn.
Het groene gazon is pas gemaaid.
The green lawn has just been mowed.
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 gazon” rather than as “gazon” 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.