de of het uitschot?
het uitschot
dregs of society
noun · /ˈœy̯t.sxɔt/
It is “het uitschot”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: uitschot
Forms
- Article
- het uitschot
- Also means
- scum
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Hij noemde hen het uitschot.
He called them the dregs.
Het uitschot veroorzaakte veel overlast.
The dregs caused a lot of nuisance.
Waarom hangt al dat uitschot hier rond?
Why are all those dregs hanging around here?
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 uitschot” rather than as “uitschot” 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.