Dutch can be a slightly annoying language to master, and one of the first times you’ll notice that’s the case is when you start putting articles in front of nouns. The Dutch have three articles, de, het, and een, and while one of these is fairly easy to use, the other two are not. Let’s dive a little deeper into lidwoorden, and see if there’s anything you can do about it (spoiler: not a whole lot at all).
Een
Let’s start off simple. Like English, Dutch has three articles – we call them lidwoorden, in which woorden means words and lid means part of a bigger picture. Other than English, though, Dutch has only one indefinite article. We don’t change the form depending on the noun that comes after it, which makes een very easy to use. You’d use it just like you would the English a and an, but without the change. Easy-peasy, right?
De and het
That’s where the fun stops. Where English only has one definite article (the), Dutch has two: de and het. Only one of them is correct in almost every instance, which already makes it a tad annoying, for there’s very little leeway to get it wrong. Also, highly annoyingly for non-native speakers, there are very few rules to determine whether de or het is to be used. It’s one of these things where native speakers simply know which one to use by heart, even though they have no idea why to use that particular one.
(Don’t feel too bad, though: Dutch people are also quite prone to making mistakes in picking the right one).
The problem
The main issue is that back in the old days, Dutch, like many other languages, used to have a bit more complexity in its nouns. There used to be masculine words, feminine words, and neuter words. Technically, these still exist, although the rules that determine which one a particular word is, are a tad ambiguous, to say the least. There simply aren’t a whole lot of ways to tell whether a word is masculine, feminine, or neuter (there are a few though, which can be found below).
Despite this, the rules that determine which article to use still apply, and they are in fact fairly simple (we’ll leave een out of the equation for now, and focus on the definite articles):
- De is used with both masculine and feminine words, as well as with all plurals.
- Het is used with neuter words, if and when they are singular, and also with verbal nouns.
As you can see, all you need to do is to determine whether a word is singular or plural (which is often fairly easy) and whether a word is masculine/feminine or neuter (which is often fairly impossible).
Rules of thumb
Luckily, there are a few rules of thumb to determine all this. Unluckily, these rules don’t always apply, have many exceptions, and simply aren’t always very useful. The rules, however, are as follows.
(Source: Onze Taal)
Rules for words that are generally neuter words / het words:
- Diminutives. Dutch uses diminutives to indicate something is small or young, much like Charlie is a smaller, younger form of Charles. The Dutch call it the verkleinwoord. These words always end in -je or, informally, -ie), though not all words ending in -je are necessarily diminutives. Diminutives are always neuter, even if the original noun is masculine or feminine, and therefore always use het as the article – no exceptions (don’t get used to it). I wrote an entire post about them, which can be found here.
- Verbs that have been turned into nouns, or verbal nouns: het tikken van de klok, Eng: the ticking of the clock.
- Countries, cities, and other physical places, as well as names of languages.
- Sports and games.
- Substances such as gold, wood, and metal.
Other than these, there are a few very ambiguous rules about beginnings and endings of words, the most useful of which (or should we say: the least unuseful) being words ending in -isme, (socialisme) and -ment (instrument).
Rules for words that are generally masculine or feminine / de words:
- Names of rivers and mountains (notice how almost every other physical place in the world is neuter? Annoying, isn’t it?).
- Plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables.
- Letters and numbers.
- Job titles and names for people.
Finally, there are a lot of suffixes that indicate masculinity or femininity in nouns (both of which will turn it into a de word). For a long, yet still entirely inconclusive list, see Onze Taal.
Both de and het
As if things aren’t difficult enough, there are some words that can either have de or het as the article.
Sometimes, it’s just a matter of which one you prefer, and the meaning of the word itself doesn’t come into play (de/het deksel, Eng: the lid – de/het doolhof, Eng: the maze). Often, one is the preferred form, even though the other version is entirely grammatically correct; sometimes, it’s entirely up to you and your preferences.
Other times, a word can have multiple meanings, and the particular meaning determines whether a word uses de or het as the article. De aas is used for the ace in a deck of cards, whereas het aas is used for fishing bait; de bal is, for example, a football, but het bal is a fancy dancing event.
The long story short
Dutch articles are difficult. The indefinite article, een, is used just like you would the English a or an. As for definite articles, de is used for feminine and masculine nouns, as well as plurals, and het is used for neuter nouns, as well as some other forms of nouns. The problem is determining whether a word is masculine/feminine or neuter, which isn’t easy at all.
Although Dutch people also stuff up on occasion, they usually have a fairly good sense of which one to use for a particular word, not because they know all the rules, but because they’ve been speaking the language for so long, and have developed a feel for it over time.
The proper use of articles is one of the first highly annoying things you’ll encounter when learning Dutch. All we can say is: don’t let it get to you, it will always be hard, you will probably keep making mistakes, and that’s totally and utterly fine. And remember, when in doubt, you can always come back to this umm… well, article.
