de of het leder?
het leder
leather
noun · /ˈleː.dər/
It is “het leder”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: leder
Forms
- Article
- het leder
- Diminutive
- het ledertje
- Also means
- short for lederkarper
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De stoelen zijn bekleed met zacht leder voor extra comfort.
The chairs are upholstered with soft leather for extra comfort.
Deze tas is gemaakt van hoogwaardig leder en is zeer duurzaam.
This bag is made of high-quality leather and is very durable.
In deze winkel kun je prachtige accessoires van leder vinden.
In this shop, you can find beautiful accessories made of leather.
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 leder” rather than as “leder” 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.