de of het bloedgeld?
het bloedgeld
blood money
noun · /ˈblut.xɛlt/
It is “het bloedgeld”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bloedgeld
Forms
- Article
- het bloedgeld
- Also means
- wergeld
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Hij accepteerde het bloedgeld.
He accepted the blood money.
Dat is puur bloedgeld.
That is pure blood money.
De familie wilde geen bloedgeld.
The family wanted no blood money.
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 bloedgeld” rather than as “bloedgeld” 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.