de of het vuurwerk?
het vuurwerk
fireworks
noun · /ˈvyːr.ʋɛrk/
It is “het vuurwerk”. The plural is “de vuurwerken”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vuurwerk
Forms
- Article
- het vuurwerk
- Plural
- de vuurwerken
- Diminutive
- het vuurwerkje
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Vuurwerk afsteken is verboden.
Setting off fireworks is forbidden.
Het vuurwerk was echt spectaculair dit jaar.
The fireworks were truly spectacular this year.
Ze gaan veel vuurwerk kopen dit jaar.
They are going to buy a lot of fireworks this year.
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 vuurwerk” rather than as “vuurwerk” 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.