de of het meubilair?
het meubilair
furniture
noun · /ˌmøː.biˈlɛːr/
It is “het meubilair”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: meubilair
Forms
- Article
- het meubilair
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het nieuwe meubilair is prachtig.
The new furniture is beautiful.
We moeten het meubilair verhuizen.
We need to move the furniture.
Het kantoormeubilair is aan vervanging toe.
The office furniture needs replacing.
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 meubilair” rather than as “meubilair” 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.