De or het? How to choose the right Dutch article

English has one word for "the". Dutch has two: de and het. Every singular noun takes one of them, and there is no single rule that tells you which. That sounds bad, but the situation is better than it looks: some rules are 100% reliable, several patterns are very helpful, and the rest you can learn word by word without much pain.

The indefinite article is easy, by the way. "A" or "an" is always een, whatever the noun: een man, een huis.

Start with the odds

Roughly two thirds of Dutch nouns take de. So if you have no idea at all, de is the safer guess. But a guess is not a strategy, so the best habit is simple: learn every noun together with its article. Don't memorise huis — memorise het huis. Write it that way in your notes and say it that way out loud.

The rules that always work

These four rules have no exceptions worth worrying about.

1. All plurals take de. It doesn't matter what the singular takes.

• het huis → de huizen — the house → the houses
• het kind → de kinderen — the child → the children

2. All diminutives take het. Any noun ending in -je, -tje, -pje and so on is a het word, even if the base noun is a de word. See our post on diminutives for more.

• de tafel → het tafeltje — the table → the little table
• de man → het mannetje — the man → the little man

3. Infinitives used as nouns take het.

• Het eten is klaar. — The food is ready.
• Het leven is duur in Amsterdam. — Life is expensive in Amsterdam.
• Het wachten duurt lang. — The waiting takes a long time.

4. Compound words take the article of the last part. In Dutch, the last part of a compound is the "head" of the word, and it decides the article.

This rule is a gift: once you know het huis, you also know het ziekenhuis, het warenhuis and het tuinhuis.

Patterns that point to de

These patterns are strong, but they are patterns, not laws.

• Words ending in -ing (when it's a suffix added to a verb stem): de woning (home), de vergadering (meeting), de oefening (exercise). Watch out: het ding (thing) is not an -ing word in this sense, so it doesn't count.
• Words ending in -heid: de vrijheid (freedom), de gezondheid (health), de waarheid (truth).
• Words ending in -tie, -teit, -ij, -nis: de informatie, de universiteit, de bakkerij (bakery), de kennis (knowledge). A handful of -nis words are het, such as het vonnis (verdict), so treat -nis as "usually de".
• Most words for people: de man, de vrouw, de leraar, de buurvrouw. The big exceptions: het kind, het meisje (a diminutive, see above), and het lid (member).
• Days, months and seasons: de maandag, de winter, de zomer. (Months usually appear without an article: in mei.)
• Most trees, plants and fruits: de boom, de appel, de banaan. But het fruit (fruit as a category) is het.

Patterns that point to het

• Languages: het Nederlands, het Engels, het Spaans. You'll often use them without an article (Ik leer Nederlands), but when the article appears, it's het: Het Nederlands heeft veel klinkers. — Dutch has a lot of vowels.
• Metals and materials: het goud, het zilver, het ijzer, het hout (wood), het plastic.
• Colours used as nouns: het rood, het blauw.
• Points of the compass: het noorden, het zuiden.
• Many sports and games, especially ball games: het voetbal, het tennis, het hockey, het schaken (an infinitive, so rule 3). This one is shakier: de atletiek and de gymnastiek are de.
• Words ending in -um, -isme and stressed -ment: het museum, het centrum, het toerisme, het moment, het document. A well-known exception: de datum (date).
• Many words starting with the unstressed prefixes ge-, be-, ver-, ont-: het gesprek (conversation), het begin, het verhaal (story), het ontbijt (breakfast). Plenty of exceptions here, like de gedachte (thought) and de verkoop (sale), so use it as a hint only.

Tip: When a pattern and your memory disagree, trust a dictionary. The pattern is there to help you guess better, not to replace checking.

Why it matters: adjectives and this/that

Adjective endings

The article is not just one little word at the start of a phrase. It changes the adjective too. Normally an adjective in front of a noun gets an -e:

• de grote tafel — the big table
• het grote huis — the big house
• een grote tafel — a big table

There is one exception, and it's exactly where het matters: after een (or geen, or no article) with a singular het word, the adjective has no -e.

• een groot huis — a big house
• geen klein probleem — no small problem
• lekker brood — tasty bread

So een grote huis is wrong, and you'll only get this right if you know that huis is a het word. Our post on adjective endings covers all the details.

Die/dat and deze/dit

Demonstratives ("this", "that") also follow the article.

• Deze stoel is kapot. — This chair is broken.
• Dit boek is spannend. — This book is exciting.
• Die fiets is van mij. — That bike is mine.
• Dat restaurant is duur. — That restaurant is expensive.
• Deze schoenen zijn nieuw. — These shoes are new.

The same split shows up in relative clauses, where die goes with de words and plurals and dat goes with het words:

• De man die daar staat, is mijn oom. — The man who is standing there is my uncle.
• Het huis dat we kopen, is oud. — The house that we are buying is old.

And it appears in ons/onze (our): ons huis (het) but onze auto (de) and onze kinderen (plural).

Quick summary

• Roughly two thirds of nouns are de, but always learn the article with the noun.
• Always true: plurals are de, diminutives are het, infinitives as nouns are het, compounds follow their last part.
• Usually de: -ing, -heid, -tie, -teit, -ij, most people, days, months, seasons, fruits.
• Usually het: languages, metals, compass points, -um, -isme, -ment, many ball sports, many ge-/be-/ver-/ont- words.
• Een + het word + adjective = no -e: een groot huis.
• Deze/die go with de words and plurals; dit/dat go with het words.

Practise it

Put the rules into practice in Articles, then meet lots of everyday de and het words in Family and Food. When you're ready for relative clauses with die and dat, see Relative clauses.