de of het vlies?
het vlies
membrane
noun · /vlis/
It is “het vlies”. The plural is “de vliezen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vlies
Forms
- Article
- het vlies
- Plural
- de vliezen
- Diminutive
- het vliesje
- Also means
- film, thin layer
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het netvlies is een dun vlies aan de achterzijde van de oogbal.
The retina is a thin membrane at the backside of the eyeball.
Het vlies om het oog is erg dun.
The membrane around the eye is very thin.
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 vlies” rather than as “vlies” 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.