de of het snijwerk?
het snijwerk
carved object
noun · /ˈsnɛi̯.ʋɛrk/
It is “het snijwerk”. The plural is “de snijwerken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: snijwerk
Forms
- Article
- het snijwerk
- Plural
- de snijwerken
- Diminutive
- het snijwerkje
- Also means
- carving
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Deze eeuwenoude snijwerken zijn adembenemend.
These carved artefacts that are centuries old are breathtaking.
Het snijwerk op de plank is prachtig.
The carving on the shelf is beautiful.
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 snijwerk” rather than as “snijwerk” 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.