How do I know if a Dutch word is de or het?

Usually you cannot tell from the word itself, so learn every noun together with its article, like de fiets or het huis. Some clues help: every singular diminutive, such as het meisje or het kopje, takes het, and if you have to guess, de is right more often.

Do plural nouns in Dutch take de or het?

Every plural noun takes de, even when the singular takes het. So het huis becomes de huizen and het kind becomes de kinderen.

Are there more de-words or het-words in Dutch?

There are clearly more de-words, so de is the safer guess when you are unsure. Still, many very common nouns take het, such as het huis, het water and het boek, so learn the article with every noun.

De or het: the two words for "the": Dutch grammar (A1)

The pattern

A singular noun (just one) takes de or het, and you learn which one together with the noun. A plural noun always takes de.

de is for common-gender nouns (once masculine or feminine), the big group: de man, de vrouw, de trein, de fiets.
het is for neuter nouns (neither masculine nor feminine), a smaller group: het huis, het boek, het water, het station.
In the plural the difference disappears: het huis becomes de huizen, het kind becomes de kinderen.
Every singular diminutive (a "small" form of a noun, ending in -je) takes het: het meisje, het kopje. In the plural they take de, like every plural: de meisjes, de kopjes.

Examples

Het huis is oud.	The house is old.
De huizen zijn oud.	The houses are old.
Het kind speelt buiten.	The child is playing outside.
De kinderen spelen buiten.	The children are playing outside.
De trein is te laat.	The train is late.
Het weer is mooi vandaag.	The weather is nice today.
De melk staat in de koelkast.	The milk is in the fridge.
Waar is het station?	Where is the station?
Het meisje heet Yara.	The girl is called Yara.

Why it works this way

Dutch once had three genders (grammar groups for nouns): masculine, feminine and neuter, a bit like German still has. Masculine and feminine nouns use the same article, de, and in the Netherlands the difference between them has mostly faded. That shared group is called common gender. Neuter nouns kept their own article, het.

So the article belongs to the word, not to its meaning. A girl is clearly female, yet it is het meisje, because meisje is a diminutive, and singular diminutives take het. A table has no gender at all, yet it is de tafel.

A useful way to think of it: the article is the noun's surname. You would not learn a new colleague's first name and forget the family name, so don't learn huis without het. The word for "a" will not help you remember, because it is een for every noun: een huis, een fiets (see Een: the word for "a"). There are some clues that a noun is a het-word, but for most nouns you simply learn the article, and How to actually learn de and het shows how to make that stick. If you have to guess, guess de: you will be right more often than not.

Remember: you don't learn huis, you learn het huis. And more than one is always de.

Watch out

Foutde huis
Goedhet huis
huis is a het-word; English has only one "the"
Fouthet huizen
Goedde huizen
every plural takes de
Foutde meisje
Goedhet meisje
singular diminutives always take het, whatever they mean
Fouthet auto
Goedde auto
German das Auto is neuter, but the Dutch word is not

Quick check

Fill in de or het: ... huizen in Amsterdam zijn duur.
Choose the right word: (De / Het) broodje is lekker.
Fix the sentence: De water is koud.
Fill in de or het: Ahmed fietst naar ... station.

Toon de antwoorden

De (huizen is plural, and every plural takes de)
Het (broodje is a singular diminutive, so it takes het)
Het water is koud. (water is a het-word)
het (station is a het-word)

Use it today

Open your fridge, pick five things and look up each word with its article in a dictionary, for example de kaas or het brood. Write them on sticky notes with the article and say them out loud whenever you grab one.

Oefen in de app Lees als Markdown

De or het: the two words for "the"