de of het startpunt?
het startpunt
starting point
noun
It is “het startpunt”. The plural is “de startpunten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: startpunt
Forms
- Article
- het startpunt
- Plural
- de startpunten
- Diminutive
- het startpuntje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Dit is het startpunt van de wandeling.
This is the starting point of the walk.
Onze discussie is een goed startpunt.
Our discussion is a good starting point.
Het boek biedt een startpunt voor onderzoek.
The book offers a starting point for research.
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 startpunt” rather than as “startpunt” 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.