The pattern
Most words for people, all plurals and nouns built with -ing, -heid, -teit or -tie take de. If no clue helps, guess de.
- People, usually: de man, de leraar (the teacher). Two everyday exceptions: het kind (the child) and het meisje (the girl).
- The four endings: de woning (the home), de vrijheid (freedom), de universiteit, de informatie. The ending must be a real suffix (a word-building ending): het ding (the thing) only looks like one.
- Usually de: nouns ending in -ij (de bakkerij, the bakery, but het schilderij, the painting) or -nis (de kennis, knowledge, but het vonnis, the verdict).
- Mostly de: trees, fruits and rivers, such as de eik (the oak), de appel, de Rijn.
- All plurals: het huis becomes de huizen.
Examples
| De buurman heeft een nieuwe fiets. | The neighbour has a new bike. |
| Het kind van Sanne is vandaag jarig. | Sanne's child has a birthday today. |
| De kinderen spelen buiten in de regen. | The children are playing outside in the rain. |
| Priya studeert aan de universiteit in Utrecht. | Priya studies at the university in Utrecht. |
| Heb je de informatie van de gemeente al gelezen? | Have you read the information from the municipality yet? |
| De bakkerij op de hoek gaat om zeven uur open. | The bakery on the corner opens at seven. |
| We fietsen langs de Amstel naar huis. | We cycle home along the Amstel. |
Why it works this way
Dutch once had three genders (grammar groups for nouns): masculine, feminine and neuter. Masculine and feminine merged into de, while neuter kept het, so roughly two out of three nouns take de. Most of the endings above once built feminine nouns. German speakers will recognise -ung, -heit, -tät and -tion.
Kind simply inherited the neuter group: a noun's article does not have to match a person's sex. Meisje is a diminutive (a small form), and singular diminutives always take het, as Diminutives explains. Their plurals take de: de meisjes.
English speakers often treat het as "it" for objects, but most objects are de: de fiets, de trein. Compound nouns (two nouns joined into one word) take the article of their last part: de huisarts, although het huis. See Compound nouns take the article of the last part.
Remember: de is the big tent for people, plurals and the main endings. Het is the smaller room for diminutives, the groups in Clues that a noun is a het-word, and some stubborn others.
Watch out
NotHet kinderen spelen in de tuin.
SayDe kinderen spelen in de tuin.
every plural takes de, even when the singular is het
NotDe meisje van Sanne is jarig.
SayHet meisje van Sanne is jarig.
singular diminutives take het, even when they refer to people
NotIk vind de schilderij mooi.
SayIk vind het schilderij mooi.
a well-known exception to the -ij clue
NotDe fruit is vandaag vers.
SayHet fruit is vandaag vers.
single fruits take de, but the word fruit itself takes het
Quick check
- Fill in de or het: ... vergadering begint om tien uur.
- Fill in de or het: ... meisje van de buren heet Emma.
- Fix the sentence: Het boeken van Mei liggen op tafel.
- Choose: Ahmed vertelt altijd de / het waarheid.
Show the answers
- De (nouns built with -ing take de)
- Het (singular diminutives take het, even for people)
- De boeken van Mei liggen op tafel. (every plural takes de)
- de (nouns built with -heid take de)
Use it today
At the supermarket, read the signs and the names on the fruit shelf. Say five nouns out loud with de, for example de aanbieding (the special offer) and de mandarijn, and look up any you are unsure about.