de of het nijlpaard?
het nijlpaard
common hippopotamus
noun · /ˈnɛi̯lˌpaːrt/
It is “het nijlpaard”. The plural is “de nijlpaarden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: nijlpaard
Forms
- Article
- het nijlpaard
- Plural
- de nijlpaarden
- Diminutive
- het nijlpaardje
- Also means
- hippopotamus
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het nijlpaard ligt graag in het water.
The hippopotamus likes to lie in the water.
Heb jij ooit een nijlpaard gezien?
Have you ever seen a hippopotamus?
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 nijlpaard” rather than as “nijlpaard” 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.