de of het spul?
het spul
stuff
noun · /ˈspʏl/
It is “het spul”. The plural is “de spullen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: spul
Forms
- Article
- het spul
- Plural
- de spullen
- Diminutive
- het spulletje
- Also means
- junk
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Dat is vies spul.
That's dirty stuff.
Ruim alsjeblieft al je spul op.
Please clean up all your stuff.
Waar heb je al dat spul vandaan?
Where did you get all that stuff from?
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 spul” rather than as “spul” 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.