de of het souterrain?
het souterrain
semibasement
noun
It is “het souterrain”. The plural is “de souterrains”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: souterrain
Forms
- Article
- het souterrain
- Plural
- de souterrains
- Diminutive
- het souterraintje
- Also means
- room
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
De fietsen staan in het souterrain.
The bicycles are in the semibasement.
Ze wonen in een gezellig souterrain.
They live in a cozy semibasement apartment.
Het kantoor is nu in het souterrain.
The office is now in the semibasement.
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 souterrain” rather than as “souterrain” 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.