de of het slot?
het slot
lock
noun · /slɔt/
It is “het slot”. The plural is “de sloten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: slot
Forms
- Article
- het slot
- Plural
- de sloten
- Diminutive
- het slotje
- Also means
- castle, end, conclusion, final
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het slot van de deur is kapot.
The lock of the door is broken.
Ik moet een nieuw slot kopen.
I need to buy a new lock.
De sleutel zit nog in het slot.
The key is still in the lock.
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 slot” rather than as “slot” 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.