de of het nageslacht?
het nageslacht
offspring
noun
It is “het nageslacht”. The plural is “de nageslachten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: nageslacht
Forms
- Article
- het nageslacht
- Plural
- de nageslachten
- Also means
- posterity
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij wilde iets nalaten voor het nageslacht.
He wanted to leave something for posterity.
We moeten de aarde behouden voor ons nageslacht.
We must preserve the earth for our future generations.
Zijn nageslacht woont nu in deze stad.
His descendants now live in this city.
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 nageslacht” rather than as “nageslacht” 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.