de of het hartinfarct?
het hartinfarct
myocardial infarction
noun
It is “het hartinfarct”. The plural is “de hartinfarcten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: hartinfarct
Forms
- Article
- het hartinfarct
- Plural
- de hartinfarcten
- Diminutive
- het hartinfarctje
- Also means
- heart attack
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij kreeg een hartinfarct.
He had a heart attack.
Na het hartinfarct moest hij rusten.
After the heart attack, he had to rest.
Het hartinfarct was onverwacht.
The heart attack was unexpected.
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 hartinfarct” rather than as “hartinfarct” 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.