de of het meesterstuk?
het meesterstuk
masterpiece
noun
It is “het meesterstuk”. The plural is “de meesterstukken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: meesterstuk
Forms
- Article
- het meesterstuk
- Plural
- de meesterstukken
- Diminutive
- het meesterstukje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit schilderij is een echt meesterstuk.
This painting is a true masterpiece.
Het meesterstuk hangt nu in Parijs.
The masterpiece now hangs in Paris.
Bekijk dit meesterstuk in de galerij.
View this masterpiece in the gallery.
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 meesterstuk” rather than as “meesterstuk” 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.