de of het triljoen?
het triljoen
quintillion
noun · /trɪlˈjun/
It is “het triljoen”. The plural is “de triljoenen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: triljoen
Forms
- Article
- het triljoen
- Plural
- de triljoenen
- Diminutive
- het triljoentje
- Also means
- 10¹⁸
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het getal triljoen is enorm.
The number quintillion is enormous.
Dit is een triljoen keer groter.
This is a quintillion times larger.
Er zijn triljoenen sterren in het heelal.
There are quintillions of stars in the universe.
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 triljoen” rather than as “triljoen” 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.