de of het ruimtevaartuig?
het ruimtevaartuig
spacecraft
noun · /ˈrœy̯m.təˌvaːr.tœy̯x/
It is “het ruimtevaartuig”. The plural is “de ruimtevaartuigen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ruimtevaartuig
Forms
- Article
- het ruimtevaartuig
- Plural
- de ruimtevaartuigen
- Diminutive
- het ruimtevaartuigje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het ruimtevaartuig landde veilig op Mars.
The spacecraft landed safely on Mars.
Ze zijn van plan een nieuw ruimtevaartuig te lanceren volgende maand.
They plan to launch a new spacecraft next month.
Het kleine ruimtevaartuigje was bedoeld voor korte missies.
The small spacecraft was intended 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 ruimtevaartuig” rather than as “ruimtevaartuig” 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.