de of het luchtschip?
het luchtschip
airship
noun · /ˈlʏxt.sxɪp/
It is “het luchtschip”. The plural is “de luchtschepen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: luchtschip
Forms
- Article
- het luchtschip
- Plural
- de luchtschepen
- Diminutive
- het luchtscheepje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het luchtschip vloog langzaam over de stad.
The airship flew slowly over the city.
Ze zagen een groot luchtschip aan de horizon.
They saw a large airship on the horizon.
De passagiers genoten van het uitzicht uit het luchtschip.
The passengers enjoyed the view from the airship.
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 luchtschip” rather than as “luchtschip” 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.