de of het wijwater?
het wijwater
holy water
noun · /ˈʋɛi̯ˌʋaː.tər/
It is “het wijwater”. The plural is “de wijwaters”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: wijwater
Forms
- Article
- het wijwater
- Plural
- de wijwaters
- Diminutive
- het wijwatertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De priester zegende het wijwater.
The priest blessed the holy water.
Zij doopte haar vinger in het wijwater.
She dipped her finger in the holy water.
Is er nog wijwater over?
Is there any holy water left?
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 wijwater” rather than as “wijwater” 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.