de of het lawaai?
het lawaai
racket
noun
It is “het lawaai”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: lawaai
Forms
- Article
- het lawaai
- Also means
- noise
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Wie maakt er zo'n lawaai?
Who is making that enormous racket?
Het lawaai was oorverdovend.
The noise was deafening.
Ik kan me niet concentreren door het lawaai.
I cannot concentrate because of the noise.
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 lawaai” rather than as “lawaai” 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.