de of het ruilmiddel?
het ruilmiddel
currency
noun · /ˈrœy̯lˌmɪ.dəl/
It is “het ruilmiddel”. The plural is “de ruilmiddelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ruilmiddel
Forms
- Article
- het ruilmiddel
- Plural
- de ruilmiddelen
- Diminutive
- het ruilmiddeltje
- Also means
- medium of exchange
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Geld is een belangrijk ruilmiddel.
Money is an important medium of exchange.
Vroeger was zout ook een ruilmiddel.
In the past, salt was also a medium of exchange.
Welk ruilmiddel gebruiken we hier?
Which currency do we use here?
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 ruilmiddel” rather than as “ruilmiddel” 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.