de of het omhulsel?
het omhulsel
casing
noun
It is “het omhulsel”. The plural is “de omhulsels”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: omhulsel
Forms
- Article
- het omhulsel
- Plural
- de omhulsels
- Diminutive
- het omhulseltje
- Also means
- hull, covering, shell, integument
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het omhulsel van de noot is hard.
The hull of the nut is hard.
Verwijder eerst het omhulsel voor gebruik.
First remove the casing before use.
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 omhulsel” rather than as “omhulsel” 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.