de of het vakgebied?
het vakgebied
field
noun · /ˈvɑk.xəˌbit/
It is “het vakgebied”. The plural is “de vakgebieden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vakgebied
Forms
- Article
- het vakgebied
- Plural
- de vakgebieden
- Diminutive
- het vakgebiedje
- Also means
- specialism, domain
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is mijn vakgebied.
This is my field.
Ik zoek informatie over een nieuw vakgebied.
I am looking for information about a new field.
Dit vakgebied is erg interessant.
This field is very interesting.
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 vakgebied” rather than as “vakgebied” 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.