de of het koffiehuis?
het koffiehuis
coffeehouse
noun
It is “het koffiehuis”. The plural is “de koffiehuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: koffiehuis
Forms
- Article
- het koffiehuis
- Plural
- de koffiehuizen
- Diminutive
- het koffiehuisje
- Also means
- café
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
We gaan naar het koffiehuis.
We are going to the coffeehouse.
Het koffiehuis van Jan is populair.
Jan's coffeehouse is popular.
Ik drink graag thee in het koffiehuis.
I like to drink tea in the coffeehouse.
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 koffiehuis” rather than as “koffiehuis” 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.