de of het vee?
het vee
livestock
noun · /veː/
It is “het vee”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vee
Forms
- Article
- het vee
- Also means
- cattle
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het vee graast in de weide.
The livestock is grazing in the pasture.
De boerderij houdt vee voor zowel melk als vlees.
The farm keeps cattle for both milk and meat.
Ze handelen in vee, voornamelijk schapen en geiten.
They trade in livestock, mainly sheep and goats.
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 vee” rather than as “vee” 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.