de of het secreet?
het secreet
outhouse
noun · /səˈkreːt/
It is “het secreet”. The plural is “de secreten”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: secreet
Forms
- Article
- het secreet
- Plural
- de secreten
- Diminutive
- het secreetje
- Also means
- bitch, secretion
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het secreet staat achter in de tuin.
The outhouse is at the back of the garden.
Ik moest naar het secreet.
I had to go to the outhouse.
Het oude secreet was koud en donker.
The old outhouse was cold and dark.
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 secreet” rather than as “secreet” 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.