de of het struikgewas?
het struikgewas
bush
noun
It is “het struikgewas”. The plural is “de struikgewassen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: struikgewas
Forms
- Article
- het struikgewas
- Plural
- de struikgewassen
- Diminutive
- het struikgewasje
- Also means
- thicket
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De kat verstopte zich in het struikgewas.
The cat hid in the bush.
Het dichte struikgewas was moeilijk te doordringen.
The dense bush was difficult to penetrate.
Ze snoeiden het struikgewas langs het pad.
They pruned the bush along the path.
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 struikgewas” rather than as “struikgewas” 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.