de of het lichtjaar?
het lichtjaar
light year
noun · /ˈlɪxtjaːr/
It is “het lichtjaar”. The plural is “de lichtjaren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: lichtjaar
Forms
- Article
- het lichtjaar
- Plural
- de lichtjaren
- Diminutive
- het lichtjaartje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Die ster staat vijf lichtjaren van ons vandaan.
That star is five light years away from us.
Een lichtjaar is een enorme afstand in de ruimte.
A light year is an immense distance in space.
De dichtstbijzijnde ster is meer dan vier lichtjaren weg.
The nearest star is more than four light years away.
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 lichtjaar” rather than as “lichtjaar” 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.