de of het kruitvat?
het kruitvat
powder barrel
noun
It is “het kruitvat”. The plural is “de kruitvaten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kruitvat
Forms
- Article
- het kruitvat
- Plural
- de kruitvaten
- Diminutive
- het kruitvaatje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De situatie is een echt kruitvat.
The situation is a real powder keg.
Hij wilde geen kruitvat creëren.
He didn't want to create a powder keg.
Het kruitvat dreigt te exploderen.
The powder keg threatens to explode.
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 kruitvat” rather than as “kruitvat” 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.