de of het ledemaat?
het ledemaat
limb
noun · /ˈleː.dəˌmaːt/
It is “het ledemaat”. The plural is “de ledematen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ledemaat
Forms
- Article
- het ledemaat
- Plural
- de ledematen
- Diminutive
- het ledemaatje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het gebroken ledemaat moest in het gips.
The broken limb had to be in a cast.
Na het ongeluk miste hij een ledemaat.
After the accident, he missed a limb.
Je voelt elk ledemaat als je wakker wordt.
You feel every limb when you wake up.
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 ledemaat” rather than as “ledemaat” 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.