de of het schoensmeer?
het schoensmeer
shoe polish
noun · /ˈsxun.smeːr/
It is “het schoensmeer”. The plural is “de schoensmeren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: schoensmeer
Forms
- Article
- het schoensmeer
- Plural
- de schoensmeren
- Diminutive
- het schoensmeertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Waar is het schoensmeer?
Where is the shoe polish?
Ik poets mijn schoenen met schoensmeer.
I polish my shoes with shoe polish.
We hebben nieuw schoensmeer nodig.
We need new shoe polish.
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 schoensmeer” rather than as “schoensmeer” 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.