de of het afgietsel?
het afgietsel
cast
noun · /ˈɑfˌxit.səl/
It is “het afgietsel”. The plural is “de afgietsels”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: afgietsel
Forms
- Article
- het afgietsel
- Plural
- de afgietsels
- Diminutive
- het afgietseltje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het afgietsel is indrukwekkend groot.
The cast is impressively large.
De archeoloog vond een oud afgietsel.
The archaeologist found an old cast.
Veel afgietsels zijn te zien in het museum.
Many casts can be seen in the museum.
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 afgietsel” rather than as “afgietsel” 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.