de of het lichaamsdeel?
het lichaamsdeel
body part
noun · /ˈlɪ.xaːmsˌdeːl/
It is “het lichaamsdeel”. The plural is “de lichaamsdelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: lichaamsdeel
Forms
- Article
- het lichaamsdeel
- Plural
- de lichaamsdelen
- Diminutive
- het lichaamsdeeltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het oor is een belangrijk lichaamsdeel.
The ear is an important body part.
De arts sprak over elk lichaamsdeel.
The doctor spoke about every body part.
Hij toonde een foto van een onbekend lichaamsdeel.
He showed a picture of an unknown body part.
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 lichaamsdeel” rather than as “lichaamsdeel” 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.