de of het flatgebouw?
het flatgebouw
apartment building
noun · /ˈflɛt.xəˌbɑu̯/
It is “het flatgebouw”. The plural is “de flatgebouwen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: flatgebouw
Forms
- Article
- het flatgebouw
- Plural
- de flatgebouwen
- Diminutive
- het flatgebouwtje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het flatgebouw heeft twaalf verdiepingen.
The apartment building has twelve floors.
Mijn vriend woont in een nieuw flatgebouw.
My friend lives in a new apartment building.
Daar staan veel hoge flatgebouwen bij elkaar.
Many tall apartment buildings stand together there.
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 flatgebouw” rather than as “flatgebouw” 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.