Some nouns you can count — one chair, two chairs — and some you cannot — you do not say two waters meaning two amounts of the substance. Dutch draws the same line English does, between count nouns and mass nouns, but it draws it in slightly different places, and it quantifies mass with measure phrases (een glas water, "a glass of water") that behave by one tidy rule English lacks: after a number, the measure word stays singular — drie kilo, not drie kilo's. Get that rule and a whole swathe of Dutch quantity expressions falls into place. (For the of-link itself — een glas water with no van — see Measure Phrases and the Partitive; for veel, weinig and friends, see Quantifiers.)
Count vs mass: the basic split
A count noun names discrete units: een stoel (a chair), twee stoelen (two chairs). It takes the indefinite article een, and it has a plural. A mass noun names an undifferentiated substance or abstraction: water, geld (money), brood (bread), suiker (sugar), informatie (information). A pure mass noun:
- takes no plural — there is no waters meaning quantities of water;
- takes no een in its mass sense — you say Ik heb geld ("I have money"), never een geld;
- is quantified by a measure phrase, not a number.
Ik heb geen geld meer; ik moet pinnen.
I'm out of money; I need to get cash from the machine. — geld is a mass noun: no plural, no een.
Er ligt brood op de plank, neem maar.
There's bread on the shelf, help yourself. — brood as mass: no article needed.
Wil je water of liever sap?
Do you want water or juice instead? — bare mass nouns, no article.
Quantifying mass: the measure phrase
To put a quantity on a mass noun, Dutch inserts a measure noun — a container, portion, or unit — between the quantity and the substance. The pattern is quantity + measure + substance, with no preposition linking the measure to the substance (this zero-link is the Dutch partitive; English needs of):
| Quantity | Measure | Substance | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| een | glas | water | a glass of water |
| een | stuk | brood | a piece of bread |
| een | kopje | koffie | a cup of coffee |
| een | beetje | suiker | a little (bit of) sugar |
| twee | kilo | aardappelen | two kilos of potatoes |
Doe maar een beetje suiker in mijn thee.
Just a little sugar in my tea, please.
Mag ik een glas wijn en een stuk brood?
Could I have a glass of wine and a piece of bread?
We hebben twee kilo aardappelen nodig voor vanavond.
We need two kilos of potatoes for tonight.
Zij dronk in haar eentje drie kopjes koffie leeg.
She drank three cups of coffee all by herself.
Notice in the table: aardappelen (potatoes) is itself a count noun in the plural, but it sits inside a measure phrase because you are buying it by weight, not by the unit. The measure phrase works for counting bulk amounts of count nouns too.
The key rule: the measure word stays singular after a number
Here is the systematic pattern that surprises English speakers. After a number, units of measurement — weight, volume, money, time, distance — stay singular, even though the quantity is plural in meaning:
| Dutch | Literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| drie kilo | three kilo | three kilos |
| vijf liter | five litre | five litres |
| tien euro | ten euro | ten euros |
| vier uur | four hour | four hours / four o'clock |
| honderd gram | hundred gram | a hundred grams |
| twintig kilometer | twenty kilometre | twenty kilometres |
This is not random forgetfulness — it is a real grammatical rule. When a noun of measure follows a numeral and functions as a unit, it does not pluralise. So drie kilo appels ("three kilos of apples"), never drie kilo's appels. The substance after it pluralises normally (appels), but the measure unit itself is frozen singular.
Die fiets heeft me tweehonderd euro gekost.
That bike cost me two hundred euros. — euro stays singular after the number.
We hebben nog vijf liter benzine in de tank.
We've still got five litres of petrol in the tank. — liter, not liters.
Het is een wandeling van drie uur.
It's a three-hour walk. — uur stays singular.
Doe mij maar vijfhonderd gram gehakt.
I'll have five hundred grams of mince, please. — gram, not grammen.
When kilo's and uren do pluralise
The rule is specifically about counting amounts. The same nouns take a normal plural when you talk about them as objects in their own right, not as a measured quantity. Kilo's (with apostrophe-s) means "kilos as individual lumps/items"; uren (hours) is the plural when you mean hours as stretches of time rather than as a count attached to a number.
Ik heb vandaag urenlang in de file gestaan — wel drie uur.
I was stuck in traffic for hours today — a good three hours. — 'uren' as a span vs 'drie uur' as a count.
De prijzen zijn in euro's, niet in dollars.
The prices are in euros, not dollars. — euro's here = the currency as items, so it pluralises (with apostrophe-s).
So tien euro (the amount, "ten euros") but de euro's in mijn portemonnee (the actual coins). The number-counting use freezes singular; the standalone-object use pluralises.
Some nouns are both count and mass
Many nouns flip between a mass reading and a count reading depending on what you mean — and Dutch exploits this just like English. Koffie is normally mass ("coffee"), but you can give it a count reading meaning "a serving of coffee": twee koffie or twee koffies ("two coffees") when ordering. Bier, water, cola work the same way at the bar.
Twee koffie en een thee, alstublieft.
Two coffees and one tea, please. — the count reading: servings, not the substance.
Doe mij maar twee bier en voor haar een cola.
I'll have two beers and a cola for her. — bar Dutch, count reading.
Conversely, a normally count noun can go mass: Er zit kip in de soep ("there's chicken in the soup") treats kip as a substance, not as a whole bird (een kip = "a chicken").
The informatie trap
English speakers reliably trip on a small set of nouns that are count in English but mass in Dutch (or vice versa). The big one is informatie: it is uncountable in Dutch — no plural, no een. English wavers (you can sometimes say informations in very loose speech, and "a piece of information" exists), but Dutch is firm: it is mass, and you say veel informatie ("a lot of information"), een stukje informatie ("a piece of information"), never een informatie or informaties. The same goes for advies (advice), nieuws (news), bagage (luggage), meubilair (furniture).
Ik heb meer informatie nodig voordat ik beslis.
I need more information before I decide. — never 'informaties'.
Bedankt voor het advies; dat helpt echt.
Thanks for the advice; that really helps. — advies is mass.
Common Mistakes
❌ drie kilo's appels (pluralising the measure word in counting)
Wrong — the measure unit stays singular after a number: drie kilo.
✅ drie kilo appels
three kilos of apples.
❌ Dat kost tien euro's.
Wrong — euro stays singular when counting an amount: tien euro. ('euro's' is the standalone plural, the coins.)
✅ Dat kost tien euro.
That costs ten euros.
❌ Ik heb veel informaties.
Wrong — informatie is a mass noun in Dutch: no plural.
✅ Ik heb veel informatie.
I have a lot of information.
❌ een glas van water
Wrong — the measure phrase needs no linking word: een glas water.
✅ een glas water
a glass of water.
❌ Ik wil een brood (meaning 'some bread', mass)
Misleading — 'een brood' is a count reading: one whole loaf. For the substance, drop the article: 'wat brood' or just 'brood'.
✅ Wil je wat brood?
Do you want some bread?
Key Takeaways
- Mass nouns (water, geld, brood, informatie) take no plural and no een in their mass sense; you quantify them with a measure phrase.
- The measure phrase is quantity + measure + substance with no linking word: een glas water, een stuk brood, twee kilo appels.
- After a number, measurement units stay singular: drie kilo, vijf liter, tien euro, vier uur — a systematic rule, not a quirk. The same nouns pluralise (euro's, uren) only as standalone objects, not when counting an amount.
- Many nouns flip between mass and count (twee koffie = "two coffees"); the count reading means "servings/units."
- Informatie, advies, nieuws, bagage are mass in Dutch even where English wavers — never informaties.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Partitive Constructions (een kopje koffie, een soort vis)B1 — How Dutch joins a container or measure straight onto a substance with NO 'of' — een kopje koffie, een glas water, een stuk taart, een soort vogel — and the partitive iets/wat + adjective + -s (iets lekkers, niets nieuws).
- What Diminutives Really MeanB1 — The Dutch diminutive means far more than 'small': it conveys affection, modesty and downplaying, turns mass nouns into countable portions (een biertje = a glass of beer), signals rough quantity (een uurtje = about an hour), softens requests, and in some words has lexicalised into a fixed meaning (meisje, beetje).
- Quantifiers: Veel, Weinig, Alle, Sommige, EnkeleA2 — The quantifying determiners — how much and how many. Veel (much/many) and weinig (little/few) collapse the English mass/count distinction and usually stay uninflected; alle (all) always takes -e; elk/elke and ieder/iedere (each/every) follow the het/de split; sommige, enkele, enige (some/a few) and beide (both) round out the set. A broad survey that routes to the deep elk/ieder/alle page.
- Forming Plurals: OverviewA1 — A map of Dutch pluralisation — the two main endings -en and -s, plus apostrophe-s and irregulars — with the rule of thumb for choosing, and how plurals tie into the open/closed-syllable spelling rule.
- Dutch Nouns: OverviewA1 — A map of the Dutch noun system — every noun has a gender (de or het), a plural (mostly -en or -s, sometimes with a trema or apostrophe), and a diminutive (always het) — and a routing guide to the detailed pages, built around the one fact that gender is the master property to memorise per word.