de of het pluspunt?
het pluspunt
advantage
noun
It is “het pluspunt”. The plural is “de pluspunten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: pluspunt
Forms
- Article
- het pluspunt
- Plural
- de pluspunten
- Diminutive
- het pluspuntje
- Also means
- upside
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De ligging is een groot pluspunt.
The location is a big advantage.
Dit model heeft een groot pluspunt.
This model has a big advantage.
Er zijn veel pluspunten aan dit huis.
There are many advantages to this house.
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 pluspunt” rather than as “pluspunt” 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.