de of het kledingstuk?
het kledingstuk
garment
noun · /ˈkleːdɪŋˌstʏk/
It is “het kledingstuk”. The plural is “de kledingstukken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kledingstuk
Forms
- Article
- het kledingstuk
- Plural
- de kledingstukken
- Diminutive
- het kledingstukje
- Also means
- single item, article of clothing
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is mijn favoriete kledingstuk.
This is my favorite garment.
Ze heeft veel nieuwe kledingstukken gekocht.
She bought many new garments.
Elk kledingstuk moet schoon zijn.
Every garment must be clean.
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 kledingstuk” rather than as “kledingstuk” 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.