de of het heldendom?
het heldendom
heroism
noun
It is “het heldendom”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: heldendom
Forms
- Article
- het heldendom
- Also means
- being a hero
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Echt heldendom is zeldzaam tegenwoordig.
True heroism is rare nowadays.
Zijn actie was puur heldendom.
His action was pure heroism.
Ze toonde geen heldendom.
She showed no heroism.
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 heldendom” rather than as “heldendom” 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.