de of het gaas?
het gaas
gauze
noun · /ɣaːs/
It is “het gaas”. The plural is “de gazen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: gaas
Forms
- Article
- het gaas
- Plural
- de gazen
- Diminutive
- het gaasje
- Also means
- mesh, wire gauze
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het wondje werd bedekt met schoon gaas.
The small wound was covered with clean gauze.
Het hek van gaas moest worden gerepareerd.
The wire mesh fence had to be repaired.
Doe het gaas voor het raam tegen de muggen.
Put the screen in front of the window against the mosquitoes.
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 gaas” rather than as “gaas” 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.