de of het zaad?
het zaad
seed
noun · /zaːt/
It is “het zaad”. The plural is “de zaden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zaad
Forms
- Article
- het zaad
- Plural
- de zaden
- Diminutive
- het zaadje
- Also means
- plant seed, for agri-, horticultural use, sperm, semen
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ik plant het zaad in de grond.
I plant the seed in the ground.
Heb je al het zaad voor de bloemen gekocht?
Have you already bought the seed for the flowers?
Dit kleine zaad zal een grote boom worden.
This small seed will become a big tree.
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 zaad” rather than as “zaad” 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.