de of het mondstuk?
het mondstuk
mouthpiece
noun · /ˈmɔnt.stʏk/
It is “het mondstuk”. The plural is “de mondstukken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: mondstuk
Forms
- Article
- het mondstuk
- Plural
- de mondstukken
- Diminutive
- het mondstukje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik moet het mondstuk van mijn trompet schoonmaken.
I need to clean the mouthpiece of my trumpet.
Het mondstuk van de snorkel zit los.
The mouthpiece of the snorkel is loose.
Kun je een extra mondstuk bestellen?
Can you order an extra mouthpiece?
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 mondstuk” rather than as “mondstuk” 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.