de of het vlaggenschip?
het vlaggenschip
flagship
noun
It is “het vlaggenschip”. The plural is “de vlaggenschepen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vlaggenschip
Forms
- Article
- het vlaggenschip
- Plural
- de vlaggenschepen
- Diminutive
- het vlaggenscheepje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit model is het vlaggenschip van hun nieuwe lijn.
This model is the flagship of their new line.
Het vlaggenschip leidde de hele vloot.
The flagship led the entire fleet.
Ze openden een nieuw vlaggenschip in de stad.
They opened a new flagship store in the city.
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 vlaggenschip” rather than as “vlaggenschip” 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.