de of het zwembad?
het zwembad
swimming pool
noun · /ˈzʋɛm.bɑt/
It is “het zwembad”. The plural is “de zwembaden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zwembad
Forms
- Article
- het zwembad
- Plural
- de zwembaden
- Diminutive
- het zwembadje
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het zwembad is al open.
The swimming pool is already open.
Wij gaan graag naar het zwembad.
We like to go to the swimming pool.
Dit zwembad heeft een grote glijbaan.
This swimming pool has a big slide.
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 zwembad” rather than as “zwembad” 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.