de of het karaat?
het karaat
carat
noun
It is “het karaat”. The plural is “de karaats”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: karaat
Forms
- Article
- het karaat
- Plural
- de karaats
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is goud van 18 karaat.
This is 18 carat gold.
Hoeveel karaat is die diamant?
How many carats is that diamond?
Ik zoek een ring van minimaal één karaat.
I'm looking for a ring of at least one carat.
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 karaat” rather than as “karaat” 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.