de of het reddingsvest?
het reddingsvest
life vest
noun · /ˈrɛ.dɪŋsˌfɛst/
It is “het reddingsvest”. The plural is “de reddingsvesten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: reddingsvest
Forms
- Article
- het reddingsvest
- Plural
- de reddingsvesten
- Diminutive
- het reddingsvestje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het reddingsvest hangt daar aan de muur.
The life vest hangs there on the wall.
Vergeet je reddingsvest niet mee te nemen!
Don't forget to bring your life vest!
Hebben we genoeg reddingsvesten voor iedereen?
Do we have enough life vests for everyone?
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 reddingsvest” rather than as “reddingsvest” 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.