de of het gordeldier?
het gordeldier
armadillo
noun · /ˈɣɔrdəlˌdiːr/
It is “het gordeldier”. The plural is “de gordeldieren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: gordeldier
Forms
- Article
- het gordeldier
- Plural
- de gordeldieren
- Diminutive
- het gordeldiertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het gordeldier leeft voornamelijk in Zuid-Amerika.
The armadillo lives mainly in South America.
Ik zag gisteren een gordeldier in de dierentuin.
Yesterday I saw an armadillo at the zoo.
Gordeldieren zijn meestal nachtdieren en zoeken dan voedsel.
Armadillos are usually nocturnal animals and forage then.
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 gordeldier” rather than as “gordeldier” 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.