de of het onderdak?
het onderdak
lodging
noun
It is “het onderdak”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: onderdak
Forms
- Article
- het onderdak
- Diminutive
- het onderdakje
- Also means
- shelter
- How common
- among the 10,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Ze zochten een veilig onderdak voor de nacht.
They sought safe lodging for the night.
We moeten deze mensen onderdak bieden.
We must offer these people shelter.
Eindelijk hebben we ons eigen onderdak gevonden.
Finally, we have found our own lodging.
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 onderdak” rather than as “onderdak” 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.