de of het wasgoed?
het wasgoed
laundry
noun · /ˈʋɑs.xut/
It is “het wasgoed”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: wasgoed
Forms
- Article
- het wasgoed
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik vouw het wasgoed op.
I'm folding the laundry.
Het wasgoed moet nog gewassen worden.
The laundry still needs to be washed.
Waar is het schone wasgoed?
Where is the clean laundry?
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 wasgoed” rather than as “wasgoed” 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.