de of het buurthuis?
het buurthuis
community centre
noun · /ˈbyːrt.ɦœy̯s/
It is “het buurthuis”. The plural is “de buurthuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: buurthuis
Forms
- Article
- het buurthuis
- Plural
- de buurthuizen
- Diminutive
- het buurthuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het buurthuis is elke dag open.
The community centre is open every day.
Gisteren hebben we het buurthuis bezocht.
Yesterday we visited the community centre.
Vanavond is er een feest in het buurthuis.
Tonight there's a party in the community centre.
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 buurthuis” rather than as “buurthuis” 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.