de of het stoofvlees?
het stoofvlees
slow-cooked meat
noun · /ˈstoː.fleːs/
It is “het stoofvlees”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: stoofvlees
Forms
- Article
- het stoofvlees
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het stoofvlees was heerlijk.
The slow-cooked meat was delicious.
Ze maakt vanavond stoofvlees.
She's making slow-cooked meat tonight.
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 stoofvlees” rather than as “stoofvlees” 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.