de of het weefgetouw?
het weefgetouw
loom
noun · /ˈʋeːf.xəˌtɑu̯/
It is “het weefgetouw”. The plural is “de weefgetouwen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: weefgetouw
Forms
- Article
- het weefgetouw
- Plural
- de weefgetouwen
- Diminutive
- het weefgetouwtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het weefgetouw staat in haar atelier.
The loom is in her studio.
Hij werkt elke dag aan zijn weefgetouw.
He works on his loom every day.
Mijn opa had vroeger een groot weefgetouw.
My grandfather used to have a large loom.
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 weefgetouw” rather than as “weefgetouw” 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.