de of het perkament?
het perkament
parchment
noun · /ˌpɛr.kaːˈmɛnt/
It is “het perkament”. The plural is “de perkamenten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: perkament
Forms
- Article
- het perkament
- Plural
- de perkamenten
- Diminutive
- het perkamentje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De oorkonde is van perkament gemaakt.
The charter is made of parchment.
De monnik schreef de tekst op perkament.
The monk wrote the text on parchment.
Ze vonden een oud perkament in de kist.
They found an old parchment in the chest.
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 perkament” rather than as “perkament” 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.