de of het poppenhuis?
het poppenhuis
dollhouse
noun · /ˈpɔ.pə(n)ˌɦœy̯s/
It is “het poppenhuis”. The plural is “de poppenhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: poppenhuis
Forms
- Article
- het poppenhuis
- Plural
- de poppenhuizen
- Diminutive
- het poppenhuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het poppenhuis staat in de hoek.
The dollhouse is in the corner.
Mijn dochter speelt graag met haar poppenhuis.
My daughter likes to play with her dollhouse.
Ze heeft een prachtig poppenhuis gekregen.
She received a beautiful dollhouse.
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 poppenhuis” rather than as “poppenhuis” 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.