de of het middageten?
het middageten
lunch
noun · /ˈmɪ.dɑx.eː.tən/
It is “het middageten”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: middageten
Forms
- Article
- het middageten
- Diminutive
- het middagetentje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik maak een broodje voor het middageten.
I'm making a sandwich for lunch.
Het middageten was heerlijk vandaag.
The lunch was delicious today.
Waar wil je heen voor het middageten?
Where do you want to go for lunch?
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 middageten” rather than as “middageten” 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.