de of het lemmet?
het lemmet
wick
noun · /ˈlɛ.mɛt/
It is “het lemmet”. The plural is “de lemmeten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: lemmet
Forms
- Article
- het lemmet
- Plural
- de lemmeten
- Diminutive
- het lemmetje
- Also means
- blade
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Knip het lemmet korter voor het aansteken.
Trim the wick shorter before lighting.
Het lemmet rookt veel en geeft roet af.
The wick smokes a lot and gives off soot.
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 lemmet” rather than as “lemmet” 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.