de of het sleutelwoord?
het sleutelwoord
keyword
noun · /ˈsløː.təlˌʋoːrt/
It is “het sleutelwoord”. The plural is “de sleutelwoorden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: sleutelwoord
Forms
- Article
- het sleutelwoord
- Plural
- de sleutelwoorden
- Diminutive
- het sleutelwoordje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Kies het juiste sleutelwoord voor je zoekopdracht.
Choose the correct keyword for your search query.
Samenwerking is het sleutelwoord van ons project.
Collaboration is the keyword of our project.
Wat is het belangrijkste sleutelwoord hier?
What is the most important keyword here?
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 sleutelwoord” rather than as “sleutelwoord” 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.