de of het kunstvoorwerp?
het kunstvoorwerp
artefact
noun · /ˈkʏnst.foːrˌʋɛrp/
It is “het kunstvoorwerp”. The plural is “de kunstvoorwerpen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kunstvoorwerp
Forms
- Article
- het kunstvoorwerp
- Plural
- de kunstvoorwerpen
- Diminutive
- het kunstvoorwerpje
- Also means
- objet d'art
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is een bijzonder kunstvoorwerp.
This is a special artefact.
Het kunstvoorwerp staat in het museum.
The artefact is in the museum.
Het kunstvoorwerp werd gestolen.
The artefact was stolen.
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 kunstvoorwerp” rather than as “kunstvoorwerp” 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.