de of het miljoen?
het miljoen
million
noun · /mɪlˈjun/
It is “het miljoen”. The plural is “de miljoenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: miljoen
Forms
- Article
- het miljoen
- Plural
- de miljoenen
- Diminutive
- het miljoentje
- Also means
- 10⁶
- How common
- among the 1,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Er wonen bijna twee miljoen mensen in de stad.
Almost two million people live in the city.
Die auto kost zeker een miljoen euro.
That car definitely costs a million euros.
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 miljoen” rather than as “miljoen” 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.