de of het lichtzwaard?
het lichtzwaard
lightsaber
noun · /ˈlɪxt.sʋaːrt/
It is “het lichtzwaard”. The plural is “de lichtzwaarden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: lichtzwaard
Forms
- Article
- het lichtzwaard
- Plural
- de lichtzwaarden
- Diminutive
- het lichtzwaardje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het lichtzwaard van Luke Skywalker is beroemd.
Luke Skywalker's lightsaber is famous.
De Jedi gebruikte zijn groene lichtzwaard.
The Jedi used his green lightsaber.
Veel fans verzamelen replica lichtzwaarden.
Many fans collect replica lightsabers.
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 lichtzwaard” rather than as “lichtzwaard” 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.