de of het vlees?
het vlees
meat
noun · /vleːs/
It is “het vlees”. The plural is “de vlezen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vlees
Forms
- Article
- het vlees
- Plural
- de vlezen
- Diminutive
- het vleesje
- Also means
- flesh
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik eet graag vlees.
I like to eat meat.
Zit er vlees in dit gerecht?
Is there meat in this dish?
Dit is lekker rundvlees.
This is tasty beef.
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 vlees” rather than as “vlees” 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.