de of het bloedvergieten?
het bloedvergieten
bloodshed
noun · /ˈblut.vərˌɣi.tə(n)/
It is “het bloedvergieten”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: bloedvergieten
Forms
- Article
- het bloedvergieten
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We moeten bloedvergieten voorkomen.
We must prevent bloodshed.
Hopelijk stopt het bloedvergieten snel.
Hopefully the bloodshed stops soon.
Er was veel bloedvergieten in die oorlog.
There was much bloodshed in that war.
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 bloedvergieten” rather than as “bloedvergieten” 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.