de of het silicium?
het silicium
silicon
noun · /ˌsiˈli.si.ʏm/
It is “het silicium”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: silicium
Forms
- Article
- het silicium
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Computers gebruiken veel silicium.
Computers use a lot of silicon.
Silicium is een essentieel materiaal.
Silicon is an essential material.
Het silicium in deze chip is puur.
The silicon in this chip is pure.
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 silicium” rather than as “silicium” 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.