de of het maanlicht?
het maanlicht
moonlight
noun
It is “het maanlicht”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: maanlicht
Forms
- Article
- het maanlicht
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het maanlicht was helder vannacht.
The moonlight was bright last night.
Ze las bij het zachte maanlicht.
She read by the soft moonlight.
De tuin baadde in het bleke maanlicht.
The garden was bathed in the pale moonlight.
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 maanlicht” rather than as “maanlicht” 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.