de of het waarschuwingsschot?
het waarschuwingsschot
warning shot
noun · /ˈʋaːr.sxyu̯.ɪŋˌsxɔt/
It is “het waarschuwingsschot”. The plural is “de waarschuwingsschoten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: waarschuwingsschot
Forms
- Article
- het waarschuwingsschot
- Plural
- de waarschuwingsschoten
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De politie loste een waarschuwingsschot.
The police fired a warning shot.
Het waarschuwingsschot klonk luid in de nacht.
The warning shot sounded loud in the night.
Na het waarschuwingsschot stopte de verdachte.
After the warning shot, the suspect stopped.
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 waarschuwingsschot” rather than as “waarschuwingsschot” 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.