de of het vogelbekdier?
het vogelbekdier
platypus
noun · /ˈvoːɣəlˌbɛkˌdiːr/
It is “het vogelbekdier”. The plural is “de vogelbekdieren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vogelbekdier
Forms
- Article
- het vogelbekdier
- Plural
- de vogelbekdieren
- Diminutive
- het vogelbekdiertje
- Also means
- ornithorhynchid
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Australische wetenschappers hebben vermoedelijk een fossiel ontdekt van een reusachtig prehistorisch vogelbekdier.
Australian scientists have presumably discovered a fossil of a gigantic prehistoric platypus.
Het vogelbekdier woont in Australië.
The platypus lives in Australia.
Heb jij wel eens een vogelbekdier gezien?
Have you ever seen a platypus?
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 vogelbekdier” rather than as “vogelbekdier” 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.