de of het voetbalveld?
het voetbalveld
football pitch
noun · /ˈvut.bɑlˌvɛlt/
It is “het voetbalveld”. The plural is “de voetbalvelden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voetbalveld
Forms
- Article
- het voetbalveld
- Plural
- de voetbalvelden
- Diminutive
- het voetbalveldje
- Also means
- football field
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het voetbalveld is nat van de regen.
The football pitch is wet from the rain.
De kinderen spelen graag op het voetbalveld.
The children like to play on the football pitch.
Heb je het voetbalveld al gezien?
Have you seen the football pitch yet?
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 voetbalveld” rather than as “voetbalveld” 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.