de of het voordek?
het voordek
foredeck
noun
It is “het voordek”. The plural is “de voordekken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voordek
Forms
- Article
- het voordek
- Plural
- de voordekken
- Diminutive
- het voordekje
- Also means
- forward deck
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We zaten rustig op het voordek.
We sat quietly on the foredeck.
Dit is het voordek van onze boot.
This is the foredeck of our boat.
Schilder jij het voordek, alsjeblieft?
Will you paint the foredeck, please?
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 voordek” rather than as “voordek” 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.