de of het grind?
het grind
gravel
noun · /ɣrɪnt/
It is “het grind”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: grind
Forms
- Article
- het grind
- Also means
- pebbles, shingle
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het pad is van grof grind.
The path is made of coarse gravel.
Het grind knarst onder mijn schoenen.
The gravel crunches under my shoes.
Koop nieuw grind voor het aquarium.
Buy new gravel for the aquarium.
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 grind” rather than as “grind” 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.