de of het strijdtoneel?
het strijdtoneel
theater of war
noun · /ˈstrɛi̯.toːˌneːl/
It is “het strijdtoneel”. The plural is “de strijdtonelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: strijdtoneel
Forms
- Article
- het strijdtoneel
- Plural
- de strijdtonelen
- Diminutive
- het strijdtoneeltje
- Also means
- theater of battle
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het strijdtoneel verplaatste zich snel.
The theater of war shifted quickly.
Dit land is al jaren een strijdtoneel.
This country has been a theater of war for years.
Soldaten arriveerden op het strijdtoneel.
Soldiers arrived at the theater of war.
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 strijdtoneel” rather than as “strijdtoneel” 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.