de of het olieveld?
het olieveld
oil field
noun
It is “het olieveld”. The plural is “de olievelden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: olieveld
Forms
- Article
- het olieveld
- Plural
- de olievelden
- Diminutive
- het olieveldje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het olieveld ligt in de woestijn.
The oil field is located in the desert.
Werken op een olieveld is gevaarlijk.
Working on an oil field is dangerous.
Dat olieveld produceert al jaren olie.
That oil field has been producing oil for years.
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 olieveld” rather than as “olieveld” 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.