de of het stapelbed?
het stapelbed
bunkbed
noun
It is “het stapelbed”. The plural is “de stapelbedden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: stapelbed
Forms
- Article
- het stapelbed
- Plural
- de stapelbedden
- Diminutive
- het stapelbedje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het stapelbed staat in de kinderkamer.
The bunkbed is in the children's room.
Wie slaapt er bovenin het stapelbed?
Who sleeps on top in the bunkbed?
We hebben een stapelbed nodig voor de logees.
We need a bunkbed for the guests.
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 stapelbed” rather than as “stapelbed” 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.