de of het röntgenapparaat?
het röntgenapparaat
X-ray machine
noun
It is “het röntgenapparaat”. The plural is “de röntgenapparaten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: röntgenapparaat
Forms
- Article
- het röntgenapparaat
- Plural
- de röntgenapparaten
- Diminutive
- het röntgenapparaatje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het röntgenapparaat staat in kamer drie.
The X-ray machine is in room three.
De technicus installeert het nieuwe röntgenapparaat.
The technician is installing the new X-ray machine.
Een röntgenapparaat maakt botbreuken zichtbaar.
An X-ray machine makes bone fractures visible.
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 röntgenapparaat” rather than as “röntgenapparaat” 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.