de of het urinemonster?
het urinemonster
urine sample
noun
It is “het urinemonster”. The plural is “de urinemonsters”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: urinemonster
Forms
- Article
- het urinemonster
- Plural
- de urinemonsters
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De dokter vroeg om een urinemonster.
The doctor asked for a urine sample.
Je moet het urinemonster inleveren.
You must hand in the urine sample.
Het urinemonster wordt nu onderzocht.
The urine sample is now being examined.
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 urinemonster” rather than as “urinemonster” 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.