de of het hellevuur?
het hellevuur
hellfire
noun
It is “het hellevuur”. The plural is “de hellevuren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: hellevuur
Forms
- Article
- het hellevuur
- Plural
- de hellevuren
- Diminutive
- het hellevuurtje
- Also means
- fire of hell, ferocity, inferno
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Sommigen geloven in het hellevuur.
Some believe in hellfire.
Die vulkaan spuwt vuur als het hellevuur.
That volcano spews fire like hellfire.
Hij ontsnapte net aan het hellevuur van de oorlog.
He just escaped the hellfire of the 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 hellevuur” rather than as “hellevuur” 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.