de of het landhuis?
het landhuis
country house
noun · /ˈlɑnt.ɦœy̯s/
It is “het landhuis”. The plural is “de landhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: landhuis
Forms
- Article
- het landhuis
- Plural
- de landhuizen
- Diminutive
- het landhuisje
- Also means
- villa, plantation house
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het landhuis is erg oud.
The country house is very old.
Ze wonen in een mooi landhuis.
They live in a beautiful country house.
Wij hebben het landhuis gekocht.
We bought the country 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 landhuis” rather than as “landhuis” 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.