Posts tagged with "definite articles"

De or Het? Knowing When to Use Which

Posted by heather 3 Comments
Jan 25 2011

Image Credit: 7rains

In Dutch there are two definite articles (words that mean ‘the’).  These are de and het.  The article de is for masculine and feminine nouns.  These are also known as common nouns.  The article het is for neuter words.

Knowing when a word is common or neuter is one of the challenges in learning Dutch, as there are no hard and fast rules.  However, learning which words are common and which are neuter is a worthwhile area to invest your time in because it does affect other aspects of the language.

While there are no set rules as such, there are some patterns and hints that you can keep in mind when struggling to pick the correct definite article:
  • the number of de-words is about twice as large as the number of het-words, so when in doubt pick de
  • plural nouns have the definite article de (het boek becomes de boeken)
  • the gender of a compound noun is determined by the gender of the second word (de wijn + het glas = het wijnglas)
  • diminutives (indicating that something is small, usually by adding -je to the end of a word) have the definite article het (de tomaat becomes het tomatje)
  • colours and languages usually take het
  • nouns referring to people typically take de
Some things that people have found helpful when learning de and het words are:
  • to learn the definite article when you learn the noun
  • to make a list of all the neuter nouns you come across, since these are less it is easier to keep track of them
  • a dictionary should tell you if a noun is neuter, feminine or masculine.  This is often done via a letter next to the noun:  neuter: ‘o’ for onzijdig, feminine:  ’v’ for vrouwelijk, masculine:  ’m’ for mannelijk
Have you noticed any other patterns with de or het words?  Do you have another tip for keeping track of the different sets?  Do let us know.
If you would like some practise, work through the following list and identify if the words are de or het words.  If you don’t know the meaning of a word, this is a great time to look its meaning up as well.   I’ll post the answers later.
  1. toilet
  2. papier
  3. toiletpapier
  4. koffie
  5. melk
  6. koffiemelk
  7. poeder
  8. suiker
  9. poedersuiker
  10. aardappel
  11. salade
  12. aardappelsalade
  13. chocolade
  14. vla
  15. chocoladevla

Sarah also wrote a post on definite articles last year.  If you are looking for more tips or just another wording of what de and het are all about, then check it out.

De and Het Words in Dutch: Also Known as Definite Articles

Posted by sarah 3 Comments
Feb 1 2010

One of the more tricky parts of the Dutch language are the definite articles. As a non-native Dutch speaker, this is one of the more difficult things for me to get correct, and if you haven’t noticed already, I still occasionally mess it up every now and again. At least as a non-native Dutch speaker I get granted a certain amount of leniency by the very patient Dutch people around me, because if you use the wrong one, you will usually still be understood. But it’s still very important to learn, so let’s get down to some nitty-gritty grammar.

Without further ado…

In English we have the definite article the. In Dutch we have the definite articles de and het.

For example:

de auto: the car

het huis: the house

De and het serve the same function as the in English. What makes it all so tricky is that there are no simple rules for determining if a word is a de word, or a het word. Apparently all native Dutch speakers come equipped with a de/het determining radar, but alas you and I must somehow try to make some sense of it all. Do not despair, there are a few tricks to help us out along the way.

1. The first clue is that around 80 percent of Dutch words are de words. If you really aren’t certain, just stick with de. If you chose the wrong one, it’s okay. More often than not, if you make a  de/het error, you will still be understood.

2. The second clue is that all plural words are always de words. All the time. No exceptions.

Examples (keep your eye out for spelling changes with plurals here):

het huis = de huizen [the house(s)]

het jaar = de jaren    [the year(s)]

het restaurant = de restaurants    [the restaurant(s)]

de stoel = de stoelen    [the chair(s)]

de kat = de katten    [the cat(s)]

de tafel = de tafels    [the table(s)]

3. A third clue is in the ending of the word. If a word ends in -je, -pje, -asme, -isme, -um, or -sel the word is a HET word.

For example:

het huisje: the little house

het filmpje: the little film

het enthousiasme: the enthusiasm

het feminisme: (the) feminism

het universum: the universe

het verschijnsel: the phenomenon

4. A fourth clue is yet another ending of the word. If a word ends in -held, -ie, -ica or -ing it is a DE word.

For example:

de gezondheid: the health

de situatie: the situation

de grammatica: the grammar

de ontdekking: the discovery/finding

5. The fifth clue isn’t really a clue at all, and I offer my deepest apologies and sympathies for it. You simply have to memorize whether or not a word is de or het. A tip for making it less tedious is to keep a list of het words as you learn them, and remember that these are het words. Otherwise, assume you have a de word on your hands.

If you are really very curious about de and het words, there are resources available that go into even more complicated rules for determining whether a word is de or het. I don’t recommend doing it unless you want a headache. After you have read the rules you will only discover there are more exceptions to the rules than words that follow the rules. But over time, with lots of practice, you’ll start to develop a small de/het determining radar as well.

Definite Articles

Posted by Transparent Language 4 Comments
Jun 12 2009

Most nouns will have the “de” article, which is “the” in English. Ex: de man (the man)

All plural nouns are “de”. Ex: de huizen (houses)

All singular diminutives are “het.” Ex: het tafeltje (the little table)

All plural diminutives are “de”. Ex: de huisjes (the little houses)

Here’s a little exercise to test whether you know the articles. You can post your answers in the comment section.

_ kat

_ meisje

_ jongen

_ vrouw

_ straten

- boek

_ kind

_ bloem

_ katten

_ gebouw

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