de of het gifgas?
het gifgas
poison gas
noun · /ˈɣɪf.xɑs/
It is “het gifgas”. The plural is “de gifgassen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: gifgas
Forms
- Article
- het gifgas
- Plural
- de gifgassen
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
In WOI gebruikten ze gifgas.
In WWI they used poison gas.
Draag een masker tegen gifgas.
Wear a mask against poison gas.
Het gifgas werd snel verspreid.
The poison gas was quickly dispersed.
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 gifgas” rather than as “gifgas” 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.