de of het rantsoen?
het rantsoen
ration
noun · /rɑntˈsun/
It is “het rantsoen”. The plural is “de rantsoenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: rantsoen
Forms
- Article
- het rantsoen
- Plural
- de rantsoenen
- Diminutive
- het rantsoentje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Iedereen krijgt zijn dagelijks rantsoen.
Everyone gets their daily ration.
Is dit het rantsoen voor de paarden?
Is this the ration for the horses?
Verdeel het water in kleine rantsoenen.
Divide the water into small rations.
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 rantsoen” rather than as “rantsoen” 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.