de of het trappenhuis?
het trappenhuis
stairwell
noun · /ˈtrɑ.pə(n)ˌɦœy̯s/
It is “het trappenhuis”. The plural is “de trappenhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: trappenhuis
Forms
- Article
- het trappenhuis
- Plural
- de trappenhuizen
- Diminutive
- het trappenhuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het trappenhuis is aan de rechterkant.
The stairwell is on the right side.
We liepen door het trappenhuis naar beneden.
We walked down through the stairwell.
Het trappenhuis was erg smal.
The stairwell was very narrow.
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 trappenhuis” rather than as “trappenhuis” 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.