de of het pincet?
het pincet
pair of tweezers
noun · /pɪnˈsɛt/
It is “het pincet”. The plural is “de pincetten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: pincet
Forms
- Article
- het pincet
- Plural
- de pincetten
- Diminutive
- het pincetje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het pincet ligt in de lade.
The tweezers are in the drawer.
Geef mij het pincet, alsjeblieft.
Give me the tweezers, please.
Met dit pincet haal je splinters eruit.
With these tweezers, you remove splinters.
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 pincet” rather than as “pincet” 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.