de of het scheenbeen?
het scheenbeen
tibia
noun · /ˈsxeːn.beːn/
It is “het scheenbeen”. The plural is “de scheenbenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: scheenbeen
Forms
- Article
- het scheenbeen
- Plural
- de scheenbenen
- Diminutive
- het scheenbeentje
- Also means
- shin
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik stootte mijn scheenbeen tegen de tafel.
I bumped my shin against the table.
Het scheenbeen zit aan de voorkant van je onderbeen.
The tibia is on the front of your lower leg.
Een voetbaltrap deed mijn scheenbeen pijn.
A football kick hurt my shin.
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 scheenbeen” rather than as “scheenbeen” 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.