de of het ruimteschip?
het ruimteschip
spaceship
noun
It is “het ruimteschip”. The plural is “de ruimteschepen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ruimteschip
Forms
- Article
- het ruimteschip
- Plural
- de ruimteschepen
- Diminutive
- het ruimtescheepje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het ruimteschip zal het zonnestelsel verlaten.
The spaceship will leave the solar system.
De bemanning van het ruimteschip maakte contact met buitenaardse wezens.
The crew of the spaceship made contact with aliens.
Het ruimtescheepje was ontworpen voor korte missies.
The small spaceship was designed for short missions.
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 ruimteschip” rather than as “ruimteschip” 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.