de of het kippenvel?
het kippenvel
goosebumps
noun · /ˈkɪ.pəˌvɛl/
It is “het kippenvel”. The plural is “de kippenvellen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kippenvel
Forms
- Article
- het kippenvel
- Plural
- de kippenvellen
- Diminutive
- het kippenvelletje
- Also means
- chicken's skin, goose bumps
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik krijg kippenvel van de kou.
I get goosebumps from the cold.
Die stem gaf me overal kippenvel.
That voice gave me goosebumps all over.
Het enge verhaal bezorgde hem kippenvel.
The scary story gave him goosebumps.
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 kippenvel” rather than as “kippenvel” 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.