de of het aardgas?
het aardgas
natural gas
noun · /ˈaːrt.xɑs/
It is “het aardgas”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: aardgas
Forms
- Article
- het aardgas
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Aardgas is een belangrijke energiebron.
Natural gas is an important energy source.
Koken gebeurt hier op aardgas.
Cooking here is done with natural gas.
De prijs van aardgas is hoog.
The price of natural gas is high.
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 aardgas” rather than as “aardgas” 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.