de of het buitenhuis?
het buitenhuis
country house
noun · /ˈbœy̯.tə(n)ˌɦœy̯s/
It is “het buitenhuis”. The plural is “de buitenhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: buitenhuis
Forms
- Article
- het buitenhuis
- Plural
- de buitenhuizen
- Diminutive
- het buitenhuisje
- Also means
- house
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De bruine muis kruipt in de tuin van het buitenhuis.
The brown mouse is crawling in the garden of the country house.
Ze hebben een mooi buitenhuis gekocht.
They bought a beautiful country house.
Het buitenhuis staat midden in het bos.
The country house is in the middle of the forest.
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 buitenhuis” rather than as “buitenhuis” 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.