de of het oppervlak?
het oppervlak
surface
noun
It is “het oppervlak”. The plural is “de oppervlakken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: oppervlak
Forms
- Article
- het oppervlak
- Plural
- de oppervlakken
- Diminutive
- het oppervlakje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het oppervlak van de tafel is glad.
The surface of the table is smooth.
Er drijft iets op het oppervlak van het water.
Something is floating on the surface of the water.
Maak het oppervlak goed schoon voor gebruik.
Clean the surface well before use.
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 oppervlak” rather than as “oppervlak” 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.