de of het schoonmaakmiddel?
het schoonmaakmiddel
cleaning agent
noun · /ˈsxoː(n).maːkˌmɪ.dəl/
It is “het schoonmaakmiddel”. The plural is “de schoonmaakmiddelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: schoonmaakmiddel
Forms
- Article
- het schoonmaakmiddel
- Plural
- de schoonmaakmiddelen
- Also means
- cleaning product
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het schoonmaakmiddel ruikt fris.
The cleaning agent smells fresh.
Ik heb nieuw schoonmaakmiddel gekocht.
I bought new cleaning agent.
Waar staat het schoonmaakmiddel?
Where is the cleaning agent?
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 schoonmaakmiddel” rather than as “schoonmaakmiddel” 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.