de of het vliegtuig?
het vliegtuig
aeroplane
noun · /ˈvlix.tœy̯x/
It is “het vliegtuig”. The plural is “de vliegtuigen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vliegtuig
Forms
- Article
- het vliegtuig
- Plural
- de vliegtuigen
- Diminutive
- het vliegtuigje
- Also means
- winged aircraft
- How common
- among the 1,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het vliegtuig landt zo meteen.
The plane will land soon.
We reizen met het vliegtuig naar Spanje.
We travel by plane to Spain.
Heb je ooit een vliegtuig bestuurd?
Have you ever flown a plane?
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 vliegtuig” rather than as “vliegtuig” 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.