de of het wafelijzer?
het wafelijzer
waffle iron
noun
It is “het wafelijzer”. The plural is “de wafelijzers”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: wafelijzer
Forms
- Article
- het wafelijzer
- Plural
- de wafelijzers
- Diminutive
- het wafelijzertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We hebben een nieuw wafelijzer gekocht.
We bought a new waffle iron.
Zet het wafelijzer aan, alsjeblieft.
Turn on the waffle iron, please.
Dit wafelijzer maakt heerlijke wafels.
This waffle iron makes delicious waffles.
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 wafelijzer” rather than as “wafelijzer” 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.