de of het huisnummer?
het huisnummer
house number
noun · /ˈɦœy̯sˌnʏ.mər/
It is “het huisnummer”. The plural is “de huisnummers”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: huisnummer
Forms
- Article
- het huisnummer
- Plural
- de huisnummers
- Diminutive
- het huisnummertje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Ik heb uw huisnummer nodig.
I need your house number.
Mijn huisnummer is tweeënvijftig.
My house number is fifty-two.
Het huisnummer was moeilijk te vinden.
The house number was difficult to find.
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 huisnummer” rather than as “huisnummer” 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.