de of het bloedspoor?
het bloedspoor
bloody trail
noun · /ˈblut.spoːr/
It is “het bloedspoor”. The plural is “de bloedsporen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bloedspoor
Forms
- Article
- het bloedspoor
- Plural
- de bloedsporen
- Diminutive
- het bloedspoortje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik zag een bloedspoor op de grond.
I saw a blood trail on the ground.
Volg het bloedspoor naar de schuur.
Follow the blood trail to the shed.
Het bloedspoor leidde naar een gewonde vogel.
The blood trail led to an injured bird.
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 bloedspoor” rather than as “bloedspoor” 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.