de of het roomijs?
het roomijs
ice cream
noun · /ˈroːm.ɛi̯s/
It is “het roomijs”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: roomijs
Forms
- Article
- het roomijs
- Diminutive
- het roomijsje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik hou van roomijs met chocoladesaus.
I love ice cream with chocolate sauce.
Is er nog roomijs over?
Is there any ice cream left?
Na het eten namen we een bolletje roomijs.
After dinner, we had a scoop of ice cream.
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 roomijs” rather than as “roomijs” 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.