de of het brouwsel?
het brouwsel
concoction
noun · /ˈbrɑu̯.səl/
It is “het brouwsel”. The plural is “de brouwsels”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: brouwsel
Forms
- Article
- het brouwsel
- Plural
- de brouwsels
- Diminutive
- het brouwseltje
- Also means
- brewage
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Wat is dit voor vies brouwsel?
What kind of disgusting concoction is this?
De kinderen maakten een vreemd brouwsel.
The children made a strange concoction.
Dit brouwsel moet nog even trekken.
This concoction still needs to steep for a bit.
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 brouwsel” rather than as “brouwsel” 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.