de of het kampvuur?
het kampvuur
campfire
noun
It is “het kampvuur”. The plural is “de kampvuren”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kampvuur
Forms
- Article
- het kampvuur
- Plural
- de kampvuren
- Diminutive
- het kampvuurtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ze maakten een kampvuur en zongen liedjes.
They made a campfire and sang songs.
We roosterden marshmallows boven het kampvuur.
We roasted marshmallows over the campfire.
Het kampvuur brandde helder in de nacht.
The campfire burned brightly in the night.
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 kampvuur” rather than as “kampvuur” 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.