de of het loeder?
het loeder
nasty person
noun · /ˈlu.dər/
It is “het loeder”. The plural is “de loeders”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: loeder
Forms
- Article
- het loeder
- Plural
- de loeders
- Diminutive
- het loedertje
- Also means
- animal, bitch, nasty woman
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Zij is echt een loeder.
She is really a nasty person.
Dat loeder is altijd gemeen.
That nasty person is always mean.
Niemand mag het loeder in de klas.
Nobody likes the nasty person in the class.
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 loeder” rather than as “loeder” 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.