de of het rijtuig?
het rijtuig
carriage
noun
It is “het rijtuig”. The plural is “de rijtuigen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: rijtuig
Forms
- Article
- het rijtuig
- Plural
- de rijtuigen
- Diminutive
- het rijtuigje
- Also means
- coach
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Je kunt in de stad ook romantische tochtjes maken in een antiek rijtuig.
One can also make romantic city trips in an antique carriage.
Het rijtuig stond voor de deur.
The carriage stood in front of the door.
De paarden trokken het rijtuig door de stad.
The horses pulled the carriage through the city.
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 rijtuig” rather than as “rijtuig” 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.