de of het meetlint?
het meetlint
tape measure
noun
It is “het meetlint”. The plural is “de meetlinten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: meetlint
Forms
- Article
- het meetlint
- Plural
- de meetlinten
- Diminutive
- het meetlintje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Waar ligt het meetlint?
Where is the tape measure?
Ze gebruikt het meetlint voor de breedte.
She uses the tape measure for the width.
Geef me alsjeblieft het meetlint.
Please give me the tape measure.
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 meetlint” rather than as “meetlint” 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.