de of het vuurwapen?
het vuurwapen
firearm
noun · /ˈvyːrˈʋaː.pə(n)/
It is “het vuurwapen”. The plural is “de vuurwapens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vuurwapen
Forms
- Article
- het vuurwapen
- Plural
- de vuurwapens
- Diminutive
- het vuurwapentje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De politie vond een vuurwapen.
The police found a firearm.
Het vuurwapen was niet geladen.
The firearm was not loaded.
Het museum toont oude vuurwapens.
The museum displays old firearms.
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 vuurwapen” rather than as “vuurwapen” 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.