de of het onderkomen?
het onderkomen
accommodation
noun
It is “het onderkomen”. The plural is “de onderkomens”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: onderkomen
Forms
- Article
- het onderkomen
- Plural
- de onderkomens
- Diminutive
- het onderkomentje
- Also means
- lodging, abode, dwelling
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het onderkomen was klein maar fijn.
The accommodation was small but nice.
Ze vonden snel een nieuw onderkomen.
They quickly found new accommodation.
Dit is een veilig onderkomen voor iedereen.
This is a safe haven for everyone.
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 onderkomen” rather than as “onderkomen” 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.