de of het tegoed?
het tegoed
credit
noun
It is “het tegoed”. The plural is “de tegoeden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tegoed
Forms
- Article
- het tegoed
- Plural
- de tegoeden
- Diminutive
- het tegoedje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Mijn beltegoed is bijna op.
My call credit is almost depleted.
Hoeveel tegoed staat er nog op de bon?
How much credit is still on the voucher?
Controleer je tegoed voor de aankoop.
Check your balance before the purchase.
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 tegoed” rather than as “tegoed” 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.