de of het vliegdek?
het vliegdek
flight deck
noun · /ˈvliɣ.dɛk/
It is “het vliegdek”. The plural is “de vliegdekken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vliegdek
Forms
- Article
- het vliegdek
- Plural
- de vliegdekken
- Diminutive
- het vliegdekje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De piloten staan klaar op het vliegdek om hun vliegtuigen te laten opstijgen.
The pilots are ready on the flight deck to launch their airplanes.
Het vliegdekje van het vliegdekschip is uitgerust met geavanceerde apparatuur voor vliegoperaties.
The flight deck of the aircraft carrier is equipped with advanced equipment for flight operations.
Tijdens de landing moeten de vliegtuigen veilig landen op het bewegende vliegdek.
During landing, the airplanes must safely land on the moving flight deck.
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 vliegdek” rather than as “vliegdek” 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.