de of het schilderij?
het schilderij
painting
noun · /sxɪl.dəˈrɛi̯/
It is “het schilderij”. The plural is “de schilderijen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: schilderij
Forms
- Article
- het schilderij
- Plural
- de schilderijen
- Diminutive
- het schilderijtje
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het schilderij is erg groot.
The painting is very large.
Ik heb een nieuw schilderij gekocht.
I bought a new painting.
Hang het schilderij hierboven op.
Hang the painting up here.
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 schilderij” rather than as “schilderij” 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.