de of het trommelvlies?
het trommelvlies
eardrum
noun · /ˈtrɔ.məlˌvlis/
It is “het trommelvlies”. The plural is “de trommelvliezen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: trommelvlies
Forms
- Article
- het trommelvlies
- Plural
- de trommelvliezen
- Diminutive
- het trommelvliesje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het trommelvlies zit diep in je oor.
The eardrum is deep inside your ear.
Ik heb pijn aan mijn trommelvlies.
I have pain in my eardrum.
Luide muziek kan je trommelvlies beschadigen.
Loud music can damage your eardrum.
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 trommelvlies” rather than as “trommelvlies” 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.