de of het krachtveld?
het krachtveld
force field
noun · /ˈkrɑxt.fɛlt/
It is “het krachtveld”. The plural is “de krachtvelden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: krachtveld
Forms
- Article
- het krachtveld
- Plural
- de krachtvelden
- Diminutive
- het krachtveldje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het krachtveld beschermde de stad effectief.
The force field effectively protected the city.
Je kunt het krachtveld van haar invloed voelen.
You can feel the force field of her influence.
Dit nieuwe idee zal een eigen krachtveld creëren.
This new idea will create its own force field.
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 krachtveld” rather than as “krachtveld” 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.