de of het kraambed?
het kraambed
childbed
noun · /ˈkraːm.bɛt/
It is “het kraambed”. The plural is “de kraambedden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kraambed
Forms
- Article
- het kraambed
- Plural
- de kraambedden
- Diminutive
- het kraambedje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het kraambed duurt meestal zes weken.
The childbed period usually lasts six weeks.
In het kraambed rustte ze veel uit.
During childbed, she rested a lot.
Ze kreeg kraamzorg tijdens het kraambed.
She received maternity care during childbed.
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 kraambed” rather than as “kraambed” 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.