de of het stopwoord?
het stopwoord
filler word
noun · /ˈstɔp.ʋoːrt/
It is “het stopwoord”. The plural is “de stopwoorden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: stopwoord
Forms
- Article
- het stopwoord
- Plural
- de stopwoorden
- Diminutive
- het stopwoordje
- Also means
- filled pause, safeword
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Zijn stopwoord is 'zeg maar'.
His filler word is 'like'.
Ze gebruikt dat stopwoord veel te vaak.
She uses that filler word far too often.
Wat is jouw meest voorkomende stopwoord?
What is your most common filler word?
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 stopwoord” rather than as “stopwoord” 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.