de of het visnet?
het visnet
fishing net
noun · /ˈvɪsˌnɛt/
It is “het visnet”. The plural is “de visnetten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: visnet
Forms
- Article
- het visnet
- Plural
- de visnetten
- Diminutive
- het visnetje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De visser gooide het visnet in zee.
The fisherman threw the fishing net into the sea.
Op het strand lag een oud visnet.
An old fishing net lay on the beach.
Hij repareerde zorgvuldig het kapotte visnet.
He carefully repaired the broken fishing net.
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 visnet” rather than as “visnet” 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.