de of het thuisland?
het thuisland
homeland
noun
It is “het thuisland”. The plural is “de thuislanden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: thuisland
Forms
- Article
- het thuisland
- Plural
- de thuislanden
- Diminutive
- het thuislandje
- Also means
- south-african township
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Nederland is mijn thuisland.
The Netherlands is my homeland.
Veel mensen missen hun thuisland.
Many people miss their homeland.
Zal hij ooit teruggaan naar zijn thuisland?
Will he ever return to his homeland?
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 thuisland” rather than as “thuisland” 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.