de of het sop?
het sop
suds
noun · /sɔp/
It is “het sop”. The plural is “de soppen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: sop
Forms
- Article
- het sop
- Plural
- de soppen
- Diminutive
- het sopje
- Also means
- water with soap, usually for washing
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het sop is koud geworden.
The soap water has become cold.
Ik doe de afwas in het sop.
I'm doing the dishes in the soap water.
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 sop” rather than as “sop” 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.