de of het toneelstuk?
het toneelstuk
play
noun
It is “het toneelstuk”. The plural is “de toneelstukken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: toneelstuk
Forms
- Article
- het toneelstuk
- Plural
- de toneelstukken
- Diminutive
- het toneelstukje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het toneelstuk was verrassend leuk.
The play was surprisingly fun.
We gaan volgend weekend naar een toneelstuk.
We are going to a play next weekend.
Het toneelstuk begint over tien minuten.
The play starts in ten minutes.
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 toneelstuk” rather than as “toneelstuk” 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.