de of het lokmiddel?
het lokmiddel
lure
noun
It is “het lokmiddel”. The plural is “de lokmiddelen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: lokmiddel
Forms
- Article
- het lokmiddel
- Plural
- de lokmiddelen
- Diminutive
- het lokmiddeltje
- Also means
- bait
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De visser gebruikte wormen als lokmiddel.
The fisherman used worms as bait.
Deze korting is een slim lokmiddel voor klanten.
This discount is a clever lure for customers.
Het kaasje was het perfecte lokmiddel voor de muis.
The small piece of cheese was the perfect lure for the mouse.
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 lokmiddel” rather than as “lokmiddel” 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.