de of het pikhouweel?
het pikhouweel
pickaxe
noun
It is “het pikhouweel”. The plural is “de pikhouwelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: pikhouweel
Forms
- Article
- het pikhouweel
- Plural
- de pikhouwelen
- Diminutive
- het pikhouweeltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het pikhouweel ligt naast de schuur.
The pickaxe lies next to the shed.
We hebben een sterk pikhouweel nodig.
We need a strong pickaxe.
Met dit pikhouweel graaf je diep.
With this pickaxe you dig deep.
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 pikhouweel” rather than as “pikhouweel” 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.