de of het weiland?
het weiland
pasture
noun · /ˈʋɛi̯.lɑnt/
It is “het weiland”. The plural is “de weilanden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: weiland
Forms
- Article
- het weiland
- Plural
- de weilanden
- Diminutive
- het weilandje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het weiland is mooi groen.
The pasture is beautifully green.
De koeien staan in het weiland.
The cows are in the pasture.
We wandelden door het weiland.
We walked through the pasture.
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 weiland” rather than as “weiland” 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.