De or het?
English gets by with one “the”. Dutch has two, and every noun takes one of them. No single rule decides which, but a handful of patterns cover a large share of words. Here they are, with the mistakes English speakers tend to make and a short quiz to check yourself.
One “the” in English, two in Dutch
English uses “the” for every noun. Dutch has two words for it: de and het. Which one a noun takes is a fixed part of the word, its grammatical gender, and usually has nothing to do with meaning. There’s nothing “neuter” about a house; het huis is simply how Dutch says it.
De goes with common nouns, het with neuter nouns. About two out of three nouns take de, so if you really have to guess, de is the safer bet. If you know some German, der, die and das will make this feel familiar. Dutch merged masculine and feminine into de, and its articles don’t change for case, so two words is all you get.
“A” and “an” are easier: een works for every noun. So de/het matters where English says “the”, and for a few words that change along with it (section 6).
- de man · een man
- het huis · een huis
In the plural, always de
Start with the one rule that never lets you down: in the plural, every noun takes de, whatever it was in the singular. So the de/het question only ever comes up in the singular. Which nouns form their plural with -s is explained in Dutch plurals with -s and -’s.
- het huis → de huizen
- het boek → de boeken
- het kind → de kinderen
- de tafel → de tafels
Signs of a het-word
English gives you no instinct to fall back on, so lean on patterns. These point to het and cover many everyday words.
Diminutives -je · -tje · -pje · -etje · -kje
Dutch adds -je to make things small or friendly, a bit like “booklet” or “doggy”, but far more often. Diminutives are always het, even when the base word is a de-word. That’s why a girl is het meisje: the ending decides, not the meaning. By the same logic, it would be het leesje.
de tafel → het tafeltje · de kop → het kopje
Verbs used as nouns het + infinitive
Where English uses an -ing form (“reading is fun”), Dutch uses the whole verb, and then it’s always het. Don’t mix this up with the Dutch ending -ing, which points to de (see section 4).
het eten · het leven · het lezen
Languages and metals
Names of languages and of metals are het-words.
het Nederlands · het Engels · het goud · het ijzer
Endings -ment · -um · -isme
Mostly loanwords you’ll recognise from English, and almost always het.
het moment · het museum · het centrum · het toerisme
Prefixes ge- · be- · ver-
Many of these words are het, but it’s a tendency, not a rule. A de-ending wins (de verwarming), and some exceptions you just learn, like de gedachte.
het gebouw · het gesprek · het begin · het verhaal
Signs of a de-word
And these point to de:
People
Words for people and jobs are almost always de-words. The well-known exceptions are het kind and het meisje (a diminutive, so the ending wins).
de man · de vrouw · de leraar · de buurman
Endings -heid · -ing · -tie · -teit · -ij
Almost always de-words. Some have English cousins: -tie often matches “-tion” and -teit “-ty”.
de vrijheid · de woning · de informatie · de universiteit · de bakkerij
No sign at all?
Then de is statistically more likely. But check a dictionary, and save the word together with its article.
Compound words: the last part decides
Dutch glues words together where English keeps them apart: “school building” becomes schoolgebouw. The good news: a compound always takes the article of its last part.
- de schoolhet gebouwhet schoolgebouw
- het huisde deurde huisdeur
- de fietshet padhet fietspad
Why it matters
Get the article wrong and people will still understand you. But unlike “the”, the Dutch article doesn’t stand alone: several words around the noun follow it. Even “this”, “that” and “which” have two forms each.
| de-word | het-word | |
|---|---|---|
| this | deze tafel | dit huis |
| that | die tafel | dat huis |
| which | welke tafel? | welk huis? |
| a + adjective | een grote tafel | een groot huis |
| the + adjective | de grote tafel | het grote huis |
| who / which | de tafel die … | het huis dat … |
The adjective is the classic trap for English speakers, because “big” never changes in English. In Dutch, an adjective before a noun usually takes -e (een grote tafel, het grote huis), but not after een with a het-word: een groot huis. It’s one of the most common mistakes, even at higher levels.
Check yourself
De or het? Make your guess first, then open the answer.
tafeltjeShow answer
het tafeltje — It’s a diminutive (-tje), and diminutives are always het.
meisjeShow answer
het meisje — It means “girl”, but the diminutive ending -je beats the meaning.
regeringShow answer
de regering — Words ending in -ing take de.
museumShow answer
het museum — Words ending in -um take het.
huizenShow answer
de huizen — It’s a plural, and plurals always take de.
fietspadShow answer
het fietspad — A compound takes the article of its last part: het pad.
lezen (reading)Show answer
het lezen — A verb used as a noun is always het.
How to remember the article
Never save a bare noun
Don’t note down boek = book; write het boek. Treat the article as part of the word, like its spelling, and you’ll never look it up twice.
Read a lot
Articles stick when you see the same word in real sentences again and again.
Look for a clue in the sentence
dit, dat, welk or een groot in front of a singular noun give away a het-word.
Practise with Leesje
Leesje’s de/het trainer uses the words you save while reading, so you practise the Dutch you actually meet.