de of het woonhuis?
het woonhuis
residential building
noun · /ˈʋoːn.ɦœy̯s/
It is “het woonhuis”. The plural is “de woonhuizen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: woonhuis
Forms
- Article
- het woonhuis
- Plural
- de woonhuizen
- Diminutive
- het woonhuisje
- Also means
- house
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het woonhuis is verkocht.
The house has been sold.
Er zijn veel woonhuizen in deze straat.
There are many houses on this street.
Ze bouwen een nieuw woonhuis.
They are building a new house.
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 woonhuis” rather than as “woonhuis” 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.