de of het jodium?
het jodium
iodine
noun
It is “het jodium”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: jodium
Forms
- Article
- het jodium
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik heb jodium op de wond gedaan.
I put iodine on the wound.
Zeevis bevat van nature veel jodium.
Sea fish naturally contains a lot of iodine.
Gebrek aan jodium kan problemen veroorzaken.
Lack of iodine can cause problems.
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 jodium” rather than as “jodium” 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.