de of het kwarts?
het kwarts
quartz
noun
It is “het kwarts”. The plural is “de kwartsen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kwarts
Forms
- Article
- het kwarts
- Plural
- de kwartsen
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De rots bevat veel kwarts.
The rock contains a lot of quartz.
Ze draagt een ketting van roze kwarts.
She wears a pink quartz necklace.
Hij vond een mooi stuk kwarts.
He found a beautiful piece of quartz.
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 kwarts” rather than as “kwarts” 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.