de of het spookhuis?
het spookhuis
haunted house
noun · /ˈspoːk.ɦœy̯s/
It is “het spookhuis”. The plural is “de spookhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: spookhuis
Forms
- Article
- het spookhuis
- Plural
- de spookhuizen
- Diminutive
- het spookhuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Er staat een verlaten spookhuis aan het einde van de straat.
There is an abandoned haunted house at the end of the street.
De kinderen vonden het spookhuis erg spannend.
The children found the haunted house very exciting.
Zullen we dit weekend het spookhuis gaan bekijken?
Shall we go look at the haunted house this weekend?
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 spookhuis” rather than as “spookhuis” 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.