de of het baken?
het baken
beacon
noun · /ˈbaːkə(n)/
It is “het baken”. The plural is “de bakens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: baken
Forms
- Article
- het baken
- Plural
- de bakens
- Diminutive
- het bakentje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het baken leidde de schepen veilig naar huis.
The beacon safely guided the ships home.
Zijn optimisme was een baken voor iedereen.
His optimism was a beacon for everyone.
De bakens langs de kust zijn erg belangrijk.
The beacons along the coast are very important.
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 baken” rather than as “baken” 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.