de of het tijdstip?
het tijdstip
point in time
noun · /ˈtɛi̯tˌstɪp/
It is “het tijdstip”. The plural is “de tijdstippen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: tijdstip
Forms
- Article
- het tijdstip
- Plural
- de tijdstippen
- Diminutive
- het tijdstipje
- Also means
- moment in time, time of day
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Op dat tijdstip sliep ik nog.
I was still sleeping at that time.
Ondanks het late tijdstip was het nog erg druk op straat.
Despite the late hour the streets were still very crowded.
Het tijdstip van de vlucht is gewijzigd.
The time of the flight has changed.
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 tijdstip” rather than as “tijdstip” 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.