de of het stoplicht?
het stoplicht
traffic light
noun · /ˈstɔp.lɪxt/
It is “het stoplicht”. The plural is “de stoplichten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: stoplicht
Forms
- Article
- het stoplicht
- Plural
- de stoplichten
- Diminutive
- het stoplichtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het stoplicht staat op groen.
The traffic light is green.
Sla na het stoplicht rechtsaf.
Turn right after the traffic light.
We moesten lang wachten voor het stoplicht.
We had to wait a long time for the traffic light.
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 stoplicht” rather than as “stoplicht” 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.