de of het kaartenhuis?
het kaartenhuis
house of cards
noun · /ˈkaːr.tə(n)ˌɦœy̯s/
It is “het kaartenhuis”. The plural is “de kaartenhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: kaartenhuis
Forms
- Article
- het kaartenhuis
- Plural
- de kaartenhuizen
- Diminutive
- het kaartenhuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De kinderen bouwden een groot kaartenhuis.
The children built a large house of cards.
Eén fout en het plan stort in als een kaartenhuis.
One mistake and the plan collapses like a house of cards.
Zijn argumenten bleken een fragiel kaartenhuis.
His arguments turned out to be a fragile house of cards.
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 kaartenhuis” rather than as “kaartenhuis” 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.