de of het vloerkleed?
het vloerkleed
carpet
noun · /ˈvlur.kleːt/
It is “het vloerkleed”. The plural is “de vloerkleden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vloerkleed
Forms
- Article
- het vloerkleed
- Plural
- de vloerkleden
- Diminutive
- het vloerkleedje
- Also means
- rug
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het vloerkleed ligt onder de tafel.
The carpet is under the table.
Dat vloerkleed is erg zacht.
That carpet is very soft.
Zullen we het vloerkleed schoonmaken?
Shall we clean the carpet?
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 vloerkleed” rather than as “vloerkleed” 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.