Here is the rule that decides the shape of almost every Dutch adjective standing in front of a noun: add -e. Mooi becomes mooie, groot becomes grote, duur becomes dure. You do this nearly all the time — and there is exactly one situation where you do not. That single exception is the entire difficulty of Dutch adjective inflection, so this page is built around isolating it, naming it, and drilling it until it is automatic. (This page is only about the attributive position — adjectives before a noun. After a verb like zijn, adjectives never inflect at all; that is the Predicate vs Attributive page. Material words like houten and a few others never inflect anywhere — see Uninflectable Adjectives.)
The default: add -e
Begin with the rule that is true the vast majority of the time. When an adjective comes before a noun, it gets an -e.
de mooie auto, het mooie huis, de mooie huizen
the beautiful car, the beautiful house, the beautiful houses. With a definite article, every adjective takes -e — regardless of gender or number.
een mooie auto, mooie auto's
a beautiful car, beautiful cars. A de-word with 'een', and any plural, both take -e too.
If you simply added -e to every attributive adjective, you would be right far more often than wrong. The trouble is that "far more often than wrong" is not good enough — the one exception is common and conspicuous. So let us pin it down exactly.
The one exception: a singular het-word with een or no article
The adjective stays bare — no -e — in precisely this configuration:
the noun is a het-word, it is singular, and it is introduced by een, geen, or no article at all (and not by het, dit, dat, or a possessive).
That is the whole exception. The clearest case is een + het-word:
een mooi huis
a beautiful house. 'huis' is a het-word, singular, with 'een' → adjective bare. NOT 'een mooie huis'.
een groot probleem, een klein kind, een duur cadeau
a big problem, a small child, an expensive gift. All het-words with 'een', so all bare: groot, klein, duur — no -e.
The same bareness applies with geen and with no article (mass nouns, headlines, set phrases), because they are just other ways of being indefinite:
Dat is geen goed idee.
That's not a good idea. 'idee' is a het-word; 'geen' is indefinite, so 'goed' stays bare.
Het is mooi weer vandaag.
The weather's nice today. 'weer' (weather) is an article-less het-word, so 'mooi' is bare — not 'mooie weer'.
koud water, vers brood
cold water, fresh bread. Article-less het-words → bare adjectives (koud, vers).
Crucially, the exception evaporates the moment the het-word becomes definite. Put het, dit, dat, mijn, ons in front, and the -e comes back:
een mooi huis → het mooie huis → dit mooie huis → ons mooie huis
a beautiful house → the beautiful house → this beautiful house → our beautiful house. Only the indefinite 'een' version is bare; everything definite takes -e.
The canonical quartet
Burn this four-item set into memory. It contains every case the rule can throw at you:
| Phrase | Noun | Why |
|---|---|---|
| een mooie auto | de-word, singular, indefinite | de-words always take -e |
| het mooie huis | het-word, singular, definite | definite → -e |
| een mooi huis | het-word, singular, indefinite | THE exception → bare |
| mooie huizen | plural | all plurals take -e |
een mooie auto / het mooie huis / een mooi huis / mooie huizen
a beautiful car / the beautiful house / a beautiful house / beautiful houses. Three take -e; only 'een mooi huis' is bare. This quartet is the whole rule.
Notice that three of the four take -e. The bare adjective is the odd one out — een mooi huis — and it is odd for two reasons at once: it must be a het-word (so you need to know the gender) and it must be indefinite singular (so een, geen, or no article). Miss either condition and you are back to -e.
Why the rule is shaped this way
The logic is historical but learnable. The -e ending is a worn-down remnant of the old Germanic adjective agreement — the same system that German still spells out in full. Dutch eroded it down to a single survivor, -e, which now appears almost everywhere. The one place it failed to survive is the slot German grammarians call the "strong" neuter singular: a neuter noun with no preceding der-type word to carry the agreement. German keeps an ending there (ein großes Haus); Dutch dropped it entirely (een groot huis). So the exception is not random — it is the last fossil of a once-bigger pattern, frozen in exactly the cell where the article carries the least information.
You do not need the history to use the rule, but it explains why the exception clusters precisely on het-words (neuter) and precisely with een (no definite agreement to lean on).
The plural always takes -e
A simplification worth stating on its own: in the plural there is no exception. Every plural noun is a de-word (gender collapses in the plural — see De-words and Het-words), so every attributive adjective before a plural takes -e, full stop.
grote huizen, kleine problemen, dure cadeaus
big houses, small problems, expensive gifts. The singulars (huis, probleem, cadeau) are bare het-words with een, but the plurals all take -e.
een groot probleem, maar grote problemen
a big problem, but big problems. The exception lives only in the singular; the plural restores the -e.
The spelling changes that ride along with -e
Adding -e is rarely just sticking on a letter — it usually triggers the open/closed syllable spelling rule (the keystone of Dutch spelling; see Open and Closed Syllables). Three things happen:
- Long vowel loses a letter (the syllable opens): groot → grote, duur → dure, laat → late.
- Short vowel doubles the consonant (to stay closed): dik → dikke, dom → domme, laf → laffe, fris → frisse.
- Final f/s voices to v/z between vowels: lief → lieve, vies → vieze, grijs → grijze, braaf → brave.
een grote tuin, een dikke muur, een lieve oma
a big garden, a thick wall, a sweet grandma. groot→grote (drop o), dik→dikke (double k), lief→lieve (f→v).
het laffe excuus, de frisse lucht
the cowardly excuse, the fresh air. laf→laffe (double f), fris→frisse (double s) — short vowels keep the consonant doubled.
Common Mistakes
The two errors are mirror opposites: English speakers either leave -e off everywhere (the English no-agreement habit) or, having learned the rule, over-apply it to the one cell that should stay bare.
❌ een mooi auto, de groot tafel
Incorrect — these are de-words, which always take -e: 'een mooie auto', 'de grote tafel'. Dropping the -e is the classic English-speaker error.
✅ een mooie auto, de grote tafel
a beautiful car, the big table.
❌ een mooie huis, een grote probleem
Incorrect — over-applying -e. These are het-words with 'een' (the exception), so they stay bare: 'een mooi huis', 'een groot probleem'.
✅ een mooi huis, een groot probleem
a beautiful house, a big problem.
❌ het mooi huis, dit groot huis
Incorrect — once the het-word is definite ('het', 'dit'), the -e returns: 'het mooie huis', 'dit grote huis'. The exception is only for the indefinite singular.
✅ het mooie huis, dit grote huis
the beautiful house, this big house.
❌ mooi huizen, groot problemen
Incorrect — plurals always take -e (every plural is a de-word): 'mooie huizen', 'grote problemen'.
✅ mooie huizen, grote problemen
beautiful houses, big problems.
❌ een groote tuin, een dike muur
Incorrect spelling of the -e form: 'groot' drops an o (grote), 'dik' doubles the k (dikke). The open/closed rule still applies.
✅ een grote tuin, een dikke muur
a big garden, a thick wall.
Key Takeaways
- Before a noun, add -e — this is right the large majority of the time.
- The one exception: a het-word, singular, with een/geen/no article keeps the adjective bare (een mooi huis, mooi weer).
- Make it definite (het, dit, dat, a possessive) and the -e returns (het mooie huis).
- Plurals never inflect-bare — every plural takes -e (mooie huizen), because every plural is a de-word.
- The canonical quartet — een mooie auto / het mooie huis / een mooi huis / mooie huizen — contains the entire rule; drill it.
- Adding -e triggers spelling changes: groot → grote, dik → dikke, lief → lieve.
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Adjectives: OverviewA1 — Dutch adjectives have essentially one ending — the -e you add before a noun — plus a single famous exception (a het-word with een or no article stays bare), while predicate adjectives never change at all. Comparison adds -er and -st. After German's case-driven endings, this is a relief.
- Predicate vs Attributive AdjectivesA1 — An adjective before a noun (attributive) may take -e; an adjective after a linking verb like zijn (predicate) never does. Recognising which slot you're in tells you instantly whether the -e rule even applies — and the predicate slot behaves exactly like English.
- De-words and Het-words: Noun GenderA1 — Dutch has a two-way gender system: common-gender de-words (about two-thirds of nouns, from the merged old masculine and feminine) and neuter het-words (a closed-ish minority worth memorising). Gender fixes the article, both demonstratives, the relative pronoun and the adjective ending — and the plural article is always de.
- De vs Het: The Definite ArticleA1 — Dutch has two words for 'the': het for neuter singular nouns only, and de for common-gender singulars and ALL plurals. The choice is fixed per noun and drags the demonstratives (dit/dat vs deze/die) and the adjective ending along with it — including the one place an adjective loses its -e: een mooi huis.
- The Indefinite Article EenA1 — Een (unstressed, 'a/an') is Dutch's single, invariable indefinite article: the same for both genders, with no plural — so 'some books' is just boeken. Crucially, een conditions the bare neuter adjective (een mooi huis, no -e), which makes this page the gateway to adjective inflection. Don't confuse it with the numeral één 'one'.
- Open and Closed Syllables: The Doubling RuleA1 — The keystone of Dutch spelling — how open vs closed syllables control vowel-letter and consonant-letter doubling, the rule behind nearly every plural, conjugation, and diminutive.