de of het spijsverteringskanaal?
het spijsverteringskanaal
digestive tract
noun
It is “het spijsverteringskanaal”. The plural is “de spijsverteringskanalen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: spijsverteringskanaal
Forms
- Article
- het spijsverteringskanaal
- Plural
- de spijsverteringskanalen
- Diminutive
- het spijsverteringskanaaltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Voedsel reist door het spijsverteringskanaal.
Food travels through the digestive tract.
Deze pil beschermt het spijsverteringskanaal.
This pill protects the digestive tract.
Gezonde bacteriën leven in het spijsverteringskanaal.
Healthy bacteria live in the digestive tract.
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 spijsverteringskanaal” rather than as “spijsverteringskanaal” 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.