de of het badhuis?
het badhuis
bathhouse
noun · /ˈbɑt.ɦœy̯s/
It is “het badhuis”. The plural is “de badhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: badhuis
Forms
- Article
- het badhuis
- Plural
- de badhuizen
- Diminutive
- het badhuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Gisteren bezochten we het oude badhuis.
Yesterday we visited the old bathhouse.
Het badhuis is nu een museum.
The bathhouse is now a museum.
We gaan vanavond naar het badhuis.
We are going to the bathhouse tonight.
Why this article
No rule predicts it
This one has to be memorised. No spelling pattern marks it as neuter, which is exactly why it is worth learning as “het badhuis” rather than as “badhuis” on its own.
The rules that do work
- • Every plural takes “de”, without exception.
- • Every diminutive ending in -je takes “het”, without exception.
- • Nouns ending in -ing, -heid, -tie, -teit or -schap take “de”.
- • Roughly two thirds of all nouns take “de”, so it is the better guess.
Other nouns whose article has to be memorised
Stop guessing de and het
Woordje has a practice mode for exactly this: it shows a noun and asks for the article, and keeps asking until you stop getting it wrong.