de of het luchtbed?
het luchtbed
air mattress
noun · /ˈlʏx(t)bɛt/
It is “het luchtbed”. The plural is “de luchtbedden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: luchtbed
Forms
- Article
- het luchtbed
- Plural
- de luchtbedden
- Diminutive
- het luchtbedje
- Also means
- air bed
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Pompen jullie het luchtbed op?
Are you inflating the air mattress?
Het luchtbed past niet in de tas.
The air mattress doesn't fit in the bag.
Dit luchtbed slaapt echt lekker.
This air mattress is really comfortable to sleep on.
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 luchtbed” rather than as “luchtbed” 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.