de of het speelgoed?
het speelgoed
toys
noun · /ˈspeːl.ɣut/
It is “het speelgoed”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: speelgoed
Forms
- Article
- het speelgoed
- Diminutive
- het speelgoedje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Op zijn verjaardag kreeg hij veel nieuw speelgoed.
On his birthday, he received a lot of new toys.
De winkel heeft een uitgebreide selectie van speelgoed voor kinderen van alle leeftijden.
The store has a wide selection of toys for children of all ages.
Het speelgoed ligt verspreid over de hele kamer.
The toys are scattered all over the room.
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 speelgoed” rather than as “speelgoed” 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.