de of het knaagdier?
het knaagdier
rodent
noun · /ˈknaːxdiːr/
It is “het knaagdier”. The plural is “de knaagdieren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: knaagdier
Forms
- Article
- het knaagdier
- Plural
- de knaagdieren
- Diminutive
- het knaagdiertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het knaagdier eet graag zaden.
The rodent likes to eat seeds.
Knaagdieren zijn overal ter wereld te vinden.
Rodents can be found all over the world.
Ik zag een klein knaagdier in de tuin.
I saw a small rodent in the garden.
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 knaagdier” rather than as “knaagdier” 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.