de of het vakantiehuis?
het vakantiehuis
holiday home
noun · /vaːˈkɑn.(t)siˌɦœy̯s/
It is “het vakantiehuis”. The plural is “de vakantiehuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: vakantiehuis
Forms
- Article
- het vakantiehuis
- Plural
- de vakantiehuizen
- Diminutive
- het vakantiehuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het vakantiehuis is groot genoeg voor ons.
The holiday home is big enough for us.
We hebben een vakantiehuis gehuurd aan zee.
We rented a holiday home by the sea.
Volgende zomer kopen we ons eigen vakantiehuis.
Next summer we will buy our own holiday home.
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 vakantiehuis” rather than as “vakantiehuis” 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.