de of het toppunt?
het toppunt
height
noun
It is “het toppunt”. The plural is “de toppunten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: toppunt
Forms
- Article
- het toppunt
- Plural
- de toppunten
- Also means
- top
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het toppunt van de berg was moeilijk te bereiken.
The summit of the mountain was difficult to reach.
Dat was het toppunt van onbeschoft gedrag.
That was the height of rude behavior.
Hij bereikte het toppunt van zijn kunnen.
He reached the peak of his ability.
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 toppunt” rather than as “toppunt” 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.