de of het ruimtestation?
het ruimtestation
space station
noun · /ˈrœy̯m.tə.staːˌʃɔn/
It is “het ruimtestation”. The plural is “de ruimtestations”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ruimtestation
Forms
- Article
- het ruimtestation
- Plural
- de ruimtestations
- Diminutive
- het ruimtestationnetje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het ruimtestation zweeft in een baan om de aarde.
The space station orbits the Earth.
Ze bezochten het internationale ruimtestation.
They visited the international space station.
Een astronaut kwam terug van het ruimtestation.
An astronaut came back from the space station.
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 ruimtestation” rather than as “ruimtestation” 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.