de of het werkgebied?
het werkgebied
working area
noun · /ˈʋɛrk.xəˌbit/
It is “het werkgebied”. The plural is “de werkgebieden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: werkgebied
Forms
- Article
- het werkgebied
- Plural
- de werkgebieden
- Diminutive
- het werkgebiedje
- Also means
- area of operation
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Mijn werkgebied is deze regio.
My working area is this region.
Het werkgebied van de machine is klein.
The machine's working area is small.
Dit probleem valt buiten mijn werkgebied.
This problem falls outside my working area.
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 werkgebied” rather than as “werkgebied” 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.