de of het minpunt?
het minpunt
disadvantage
noun
It is “het minpunt”. The plural is “de minpunten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: minpunt
Forms
- Article
- het minpunt
- Plural
- de minpunten
- Diminutive
- het minpuntje
- Also means
- downside
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het grootste minpunt is de hoge prijs.
The biggest disadvantage is the high price.
Ik zie hierin één groot minpunt.
I see one big disadvantage in this.
Dat ene minpunt is makkelijk op te lossen.
That one disadvantage is easy to solve.
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 minpunt” rather than as “minpunt” 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.