de of het kooldioxide?
het kooldioxide
carbon dioxide
noun · /koːldiɔksidə/
It is “het kooldioxide”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kooldioxide
Forms
- Article
- het kooldioxide
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Planten zetten kooldioxide om in zuurstof.
Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.
Wij ademen kooldioxide uit.
We breathe out carbon dioxide.
Auto's stoten veel kooldioxide uit.
Cars emit a lot of carbon dioxide.
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 kooldioxide” rather than as “kooldioxide” 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.