de of het paard?
het paard
horse
noun · /paːrt/
It is “het paard”. The plural is “de paarden”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: paard
Forms
- Article
- het paard
- Plural
- de paarden
- Diminutive
- het paardje
- Also means
- knight, pommel horse, ugly woman
- How common
- among the 2,000 most common Dutch words
In a sentence
Het paard staat in de wei.
The horse is standing in the meadow.
Wij hebben drie paarden op onze boerderij.
We have three horses on our farm.
Heb jij al eens op een paard gezeten?
Have you ever sat on a horse?
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 paard” rather than as “paard” 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.