de of het slagschip?
het slagschip
battleship
noun
It is “het slagschip”. The plural is “de slagschepen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: slagschip
Forms
- Article
- het slagschip
- Plural
- de slagschepen
- Diminutive
- het slagscheepje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Tijdens de oorlog werden verschillende slagschepen ingezet om zeeslagen te voeren.
During the war, several battleships were deployed to engage in naval battles.
Het slagschip is uitgerust met krachtige kanonnen en gepantserde bepantsering.
The battleship is equipped with powerful cannons and armored plating.
Het slagschip vaart op zee.
The battleship sails on the sea.
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 slagschip” rather than as “slagschip” 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.