de of het onderpand?
het onderpand
collateral
noun
It is “het onderpand”. The plural is “de onderpanden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: onderpand
Forms
- Article
- het onderpand
- Plural
- de onderpanden
- Diminutive
- het onderpandje
- Also means
- pledge, guarantee, form of security
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het huis dient als onderpand voor de lening.
The house serves as collateral for the loan.
Welk onderpand accepteren jullie?
What collateral do you accept?
De bank eiste extra onderpand.
The bank demanded extra collateral.
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 onderpand” rather than as “onderpand” 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.