de of het giswerk?
het giswerk
guesswork
noun · /ˈɣɪs.ʋɛrk/
It is “het giswerk”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: giswerk
Forms
- Article
- het giswerk
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Mijn antwoord was puur giswerk.
My answer was pure guesswork.
Zonder meer informatie blijft het giswerk.
Without more information, it remains guesswork.
De hele planning was gebaseerd op giswerk.
The entire planning was based on guesswork.
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 giswerk” rather than as “giswerk” 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.