de of het grondgebied?
het grondgebied
territory
noun · /ˈɣrɔnt.xəˌbit/
It is “het grondgebied”. The plural is “de grondgebieden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: grondgebied
Forms
- Article
- het grondgebied
- Plural
- de grondgebieden
- Diminutive
- het grondgebiedje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Dit is het grondgebied van onze stad.
This is the territory of our city.
De grens markeert het einde van hun grondgebied.
The border marks the end of their territory.
De politie bewaakt het grondgebied dag en nacht.
The police guard the territory day and night.
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 grondgebied” rather than as “grondgebied” 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.