de of het moordwapen?
het moordwapen
murder weapon
noun · /ˈmoːrtˌʋaː.pə(n)/
It is “het moordwapen”. The plural is “de moordwapens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: moordwapen
Forms
- Article
- het moordwapen
- Plural
- de moordwapens
- How common
- among the 5,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
De politie vond het moordwapen.
The police found the murder weapon.
Ze zoeken nog steeds naar het moordwapen.
They are still looking for the murder weapon.
Het mes bleek het moordwapen te zijn.
The knife turned out to be the murder weapon.
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 moordwapen” rather than as “moordwapen” 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.