de of het tapijt?
het tapijt
carpet
noun · /taːˈpɛi̯t/
It is “het tapijt”. The plural is “de tapijten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tapijt
Forms
- Article
- het tapijt
- Plural
- de tapijten
- Diminutive
- het tapijtje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het tapijt is erg zacht.
The carpet is very soft.
Kun je het tapijt stofzuigen?
Can you vacuum the carpet?
Er ligt een groot tapijt in de hal.
There is a large carpet in the hall.
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 tapijt” rather than as “tapijt” 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.