de of het ruimteveer?
het ruimteveer
space shuttle
noun · /ˈrœy̯m.təˌveːr/
It is “het ruimteveer”. The plural is “de ruimteveren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ruimteveer
Forms
- Article
- het ruimteveer
- Plural
- de ruimteveren
- Diminutive
- het ruimteveertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het ruimteveer vliegt naar de ruimte.
The space shuttle flies into space.
De vleugels van het ruimteveer zijn groot.
The wings of the space shuttle are large.
Ze lanceerden het nieuwe ruimteveer.
They launched the new space shuttle.
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 ruimteveer” rather than as “ruimteveer” 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.