de of het noorderlicht?
het noorderlicht
northern lights
noun · /ˈnoːr.dərˌlɪxt/
It is “het noorderlicht”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: noorderlicht
Forms
- Article
- het noorderlicht
- Also means
- aurora borealis
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het noorderlicht was prachtig.
The northern lights were beautiful.
We hopen het noorderlicht te zien.
We hope to see the northern lights.
Het noorderlicht danst vaak aan de hemel.
The northern lights often dance in the sky.
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 noorderlicht” rather than as “noorderlicht” 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.