de of het koningshuis?
het koningshuis
royal house
noun · /ˈkoː.nɪŋsˌɦœy̯s/
It is “het koningshuis”. The plural is “de koningshuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: koningshuis
Forms
- Article
- het koningshuis
- Plural
- de koningshuizen
- Diminutive
- het koningshuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het koningshuis is erg bekend.
The royal house is very well-known.
Zij volgen het koningshuis op de voet.
They follow the royal house closely.
Wat vind je van het koningshuis?
What do you think of the royal house?
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 koningshuis” rather than as “koningshuis” 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.