de of het zwijn?
het zwijn
pig
noun · /zʋɛi̯n/
It is “het zwijn”. The plural is “de zwijnen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: zwijn
Forms
- Article
- het zwijn
- Plural
- de zwijnen
- Diminutive
- het zwijntje
- Also means
- swine, fiend, bicycle
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het zwijn rolde in de modder.
The pig rolled in the mud.
De boer heeft veel zwijnen op zijn erf.
The farmer has many pigs on his yard.
We zagen een wild zwijn in het bos.
We saw a wild boar in the forest.
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 zwijn” rather than as “zwijn” 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.