de of het voertuig?
het voertuig
vehicle
noun · /ˈvur.tœy̯x/
It is “het voertuig”. The plural is “de voertuigen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voertuig
Forms
- Article
- het voertuig
- Plural
- de voertuigen
- Diminutive
- het voertuigje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het voertuig stond geparkeerd voor de deur.
The vehicle was parked in front of the door.
Dit is een heel oud voertuig.
This is a very old vehicle.
Parkeer je voertuig niet op de stoep.
Do not park your vehicle on the pavement.
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 voertuig” rather than as “voertuig” 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.