de of het konijnenhol?
het konijnenhol
rabbit hole
noun · /koːˈnɛi̯.nə(n)ˌɦɔl/
It is “het konijnenhol”. The plural is “de konijnenholen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: konijnenhol
Forms
- Article
- het konijnenhol
- Plural
- de konijnenholen
- Diminutive
- het konijnenholletje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We zagen een konijnenhol in het gras.
We saw a rabbit hole in the grass.
Het konijn schoot snel het konijnenhol in.
The rabbit quickly shot into the rabbit hole.
Dit konijnenhol is verrassend diep.
This rabbit hole is surprisingly deep.
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 konijnenhol” rather than as “konijnenhol” 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.