de of het hondenvoer?
het hondenvoer
dog food
noun
It is “het hondenvoer”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: hondenvoer
Forms
- Article
- het hondenvoer
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik moet nieuw hondenvoer kopen voor mijn hond.
I need to buy new dog food for my dog.
Dit hondenvoer is speciaal gemaakt voor kleine rassen.
This dog food is specially made for small breeds.
Ze maakt zelf hondenvoer voor haar honden.
She makes dog food herself for her dogs.
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 hondenvoer” rather than as “hondenvoer” 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.