de of het dorpshuis?
het dorpshuis
village meetinghouse
noun · /ˈdɔrps.ɦœy̯s/
It is “het dorpshuis”. The plural is “de dorpshuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: dorpshuis
Forms
- Article
- het dorpshuis
- Plural
- de dorpshuizen
- Diminutive
- het dorpshuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het dorpshuis is vandaag gesloten.
The village meetinghouse is closed today.
Wij lopen altijd naar het dorpshuis.
We always walk to the village meetinghouse.
De bingo is elke vrijdag in het dorpshuis.
The bingo is every Friday in the village meetinghouse.
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 dorpshuis” rather than as “dorpshuis” 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.