de of het platteland?
het platteland
country
noun · /ˌplɑ.təˈlɑnt/
It is “het platteland”. The plural is “de plattelanden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: platteland
Forms
- Article
- het platteland
- Plural
- de plattelanden
- Diminutive
- het plattelandje
- Also means
- countryside
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik woonde in een groot huis op het platteland.
I lived in a big house in the country.
Wij wonen op het platteland.
We live in the countryside.
In het weekend gaan we vaak naar het platteland.
On weekends, we often go to the countryside.
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 platteland” rather than as “platteland” 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.