de of het wondermiddel?
het wondermiddel
miracle cure
noun · /ˈʋɔn.dərˌmɪ.dəl/
It is “het wondermiddel”. The plural is “de wondermiddelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: wondermiddel
Forms
- Article
- het wondermiddel
- Plural
- de wondermiddelen
- Diminutive
- het wondermiddeltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dat is geen wondermiddel, hoor.
That's no miracle cure, you know.
Iedereen zoekt naar het wondermiddel.
Everyone is looking for the miracle cure.
Dit bleek geen wondermiddel te zijn.
This turned out not to be a miracle cure.
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 wondermiddel” rather than as “wondermiddel” 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.