de of het schiereiland?
het schiereiland
peninsula
noun · /ˈsxiːrˌɛi̯.lɑnt/
It is “het schiereiland”. The plural is “de schiereilanden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: schiereiland
Forms
- Article
- het schiereiland
- Plural
- de schiereilanden
- Diminutive
- het schiereilandje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Florida is een bekend schiereiland.
Florida is a well-known peninsula.
Het schiereiland heeft mooie stranden.
The peninsula has beautiful beaches.
We bezochten gisteren een klein schiereiland.
We visited a small peninsula yesterday.
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 schiereiland” rather than as “schiereiland” 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.