de of het spit?
het spit
skewer
noun · /spɪt/
It is “het spit”. The plural is “de spitten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: spit
Forms
- Article
- het spit
- Plural
- de spitten
- Diminutive
- het spitje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Geef me dat spit, alsjeblieft.
Give me that skewer, please.
Het vlees draait langzaam aan het spit.
The meat slowly turns on the skewer.
Heb je genoeg spitten voor iedereen?
Do you have enough skewers for everyone?
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 spit” rather than as “spit” 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.