de of het spookschip?
het spookschip
ghost ship
noun
It is “het spookschip”. The plural is “de spookschepen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: spookschip
Forms
- Article
- het spookschip
- Plural
- de spookschepen
- Diminutive
- het spookscheepje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het spookschip verscheen in de mist.
The ghost ship appeared in the fog.
We hoorden verhalen over het spookschip.
We heard stories about the ghost ship.
Dat oude schip lijkt wel een spookschip.
That old ship looks like a ghost ship.
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 spookschip” rather than as “spookschip” 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.