de of het voorwerp?
het voorwerp
object
noun · /ˈvoːrˌʋɛrp/
It is “het voorwerp”. The plural is “de voorwerpen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: voorwerp
Forms
- Article
- het voorwerp
- Plural
- de voorwerpen
- Diminutive
- het voorwerpje
- Also means
- physical object
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Dit is een onbekend voorwerp.
This is an unknown object.
Op de tafel lag een klein voorwerp.
On the table lay a small object.
De kinderen speelden met verschillende voorwerpen.
The children played with different objects.
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 voorwerp” rather than as “voorwerp” 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.