de of het huiswerk?
het huiswerk
homework
noun · /ˈɦœy̯s.ʋɛrk/
It is “het huiswerk”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: huiswerk
Forms
- Article
- het huiswerk
- Diminutive
- het huiswerkje
- How common
- among the 3,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Toen ik een kind was, haatte ik het om mijn huiswerk te doen.
When I was a child, I hated doing my homework.
Ik maak elke avond mijn huiswerk.
I do my homework every evening.
Hebben we veel huiswerk voor morgen?
Do we have a lot of homework for tomorrow?
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 huiswerk” rather than as “huiswerk” 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.