de of het noodlot?
het noodlot
fate
noun
It is “het noodlot”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: noodlot
Forms
- Article
- het noodlot
- Also means
- destiny, disastrous fate, bad luck, misfortune
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Je moet het noodlot soms accepteren.
You sometimes have to accept fate.
Het noodlot heeft anders beslist.
Fate decided differently.
Niemand kan het noodlot ontlopen.
Nobody can escape fate.
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 noodlot” rather than as “noodlot” 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.