de of het clubhuis?
het clubhuis
clubhouse
noun · /ˈklʏp.ɦœy̯s/
It is “het clubhuis”. The plural is “de clubhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: clubhuis
Forms
- Article
- het clubhuis
- Plural
- de clubhuizen
- Diminutive
- het clubhuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het clubhuis staat naast de velden.
The clubhouse is next to the fields.
We lopen nu naar het clubhuis.
We are walking to the clubhouse now.
Het clubhuis heeft een grote bar.
The clubhouse has a large bar.
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 clubhuis” rather than as “clubhuis” 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.