de of het ziekenhuisbed?
het ziekenhuisbed
hospital bed
noun · /ˈzi.kə(n).ɦœy̯sˌbɛt/
It is “het ziekenhuisbed”. The plural is “de ziekenhuisbedden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: ziekenhuisbed
Forms
- Article
- het ziekenhuisbed
- Plural
- de ziekenhuisbedden
- Diminutive
- het ziekenhuisbedje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het ziekenhuisbed was comfortabeler dan verwacht.
The hospital bed was more comfortable than expected.
De verpleegkundige duwde het ziekenhuisbed naar de kamer.
The nurse pushed the hospital bed to the room.
Is dit ziekenhuisbed nog vrij?
Is this hospital bed still free?
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 ziekenhuisbed” rather than as “ziekenhuisbed” 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.