de of het doelpunt?
het doelpunt
goal
noun · /ˈdulˌpʏnt/
It is “het doelpunt”. The plural is “de doelpunten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: doelpunt
Forms
- Article
- het doelpunt
- Plural
- de doelpunten
- Diminutive
- het doelpuntje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Pele scoorde het enige doelpunt van de wedstrijd.
Pele scored the game's only goal.
We kwamen op achterstand door een eigen doelpunt.
We went a goal behind as a result of an own goal.
Hij scoorde een prachtig doelpunt.
He scored a beautiful goal.
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 doelpunt” rather than as “doelpunt” 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.