de of het mes?
het mes
knife
noun · /mɛs/
It is “het mes”. The plural is “de messen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: mes
Forms
- Article
- het mes
- Plural
- de messen
- Diminutive
- het mesje
- Also means
- cleaver, blade
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Dit mes is erg scherp.
This knife is very sharp.
Kun je me een mes geven?
Can you give me a knife?
Het mes ligt in de la.
The knife is in the drawer.
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 mes” rather than as “mes” 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.