de of het veilinghuis?
het veilinghuis
auction house
noun · /ˈvɛi̯.lɪŋˌɦœy̯s/
It is “het veilinghuis”. The plural is “de veilinghuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: veilinghuis
Forms
- Article
- het veilinghuis
- Plural
- de veilinghuizen
- Diminutive
- het veilinghuisje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het veilinghuis opent om tien uur.
The auction house opens at ten o'clock.
Ik zag het schilderij bij het veilinghuis.
I saw the painting at the auction house.
Wij bezoeken morgen een veilinghuis.
We are visiting an auction house tomorrow.
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 veilinghuis” rather than as “veilinghuis” 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.