de of het puin?
het puin
rubble
noun · /pœy̯n/
It is “het puin”. The plural is “de puinen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: puin
Forms
- Article
- het puin
- Plural
- de puinen
- Diminutive
- het puintje
- Also means
- debris, wreckage, ruins
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Overal lag het puin.
Rubble lay everywhere.
We moeten al het puin opruimen.
We have to clear all the rubble.
De berg puin was enorm.
The pile of rubble was enormous.
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 puin” rather than as “puin” 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.