de of het zetmeel?
het zetmeel
starch
noun · /ˈzɛtmeːl/
It is “het zetmeel”. The plural is “de zetmelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zetmeel
Forms
- Article
- het zetmeel
- Plural
- de zetmelen
- Also means
- amylum
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Aardappelen bevatten veel zetmeel.
Potatoes contain a lot of starch.
Je kunt saus indikken met zetmeel.
You can thicken sauce with starch.
Maïzena is een soort zetmeel.
Cornflour is a type of starch.
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 zetmeel” rather than as “zetmeel” 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.