de of het litteken?
het litteken
scar
noun · /ˈlɪˌteː.kə(n)/
It is “het litteken”. The plural is “de littekens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: litteken
Forms
- Article
- het litteken
- Plural
- de littekens
- Diminutive
- het littekentje
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Hij heeft een klein litteken boven zijn oog.
He has a small scar above his eye.
Dit litteken komt van een val toen ik klein was.
This scar comes from a fall when I was little.
Het litteken op haar knie is bijna verdwenen.
The scar on her knee has almost disappeared.
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 litteken” rather than as “litteken” 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.