de of het reuma?
het reuma
rheumatism
noun · /ˈrøː.maː/
It is “het reuma”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: reuma
Forms
- Article
- het reuma
- Diminutive
- het reumaatje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Reuma kan veel pijn veroorzaken.
Rheumatism can cause a lot of pain.
Mijn buurvrouw heeft al jaren reuma.
My neighbor has had rheumatism for years.
Er zijn medicijnen tegen reuma.
There are medicines for rheumatism.
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 reuma” rather than as “reuma” 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.