de of het katoen?
het katoen
cotton
noun · /kaːˈtun/
It is “het katoen”. The plural is “de katoenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: katoen
Forms
- Article
- het katoen
- Plural
- de katoenen
- Diminutive
- het katoentje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Dit T-shirt is van zacht katoen.
This T-shirt is made of soft cotton.
Zij kocht een mooie katoenen handdoek.
She bought a beautiful cotton towel.
Katoen is een natuurlijk en ademend materiaal.
Cotton is a natural and breathable material.
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 katoen” rather than as “katoen” 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.