de of het ruimtepak?
het ruimtepak
space suit
noun · /ˈrœy̯m.təˌpɑk/
It is “het ruimtepak”. The plural is “de ruimtepakken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ruimtepak
Forms
- Article
- het ruimtepak
- Plural
- de ruimtepakken
- Diminutive
- het ruimtepakje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De astronaut trekt zijn ruimtepak aan.
The astronaut puts on his space suit.
In het museum zagen we een oud ruimtepak.
In the museum, we saw an old space suit.
Is het ruimtepak comfortabel om te dragen?
Is the space suit comfortable to wear?
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 ruimtepak” rather than as “ruimtepak” 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.