ELONIO

Definite articles (de, het)

In English, there is only one word for "the". In Dutch, there are two: de and het.

Every noun in Dutch has a grammatical gender that determines its article:

  • De is for masculine and feminine words (often grouped as "common" gender).
  • Het is for neuter words.

Because there is no simple rule for guessing gender, always learn a new noun together with its article.

Here are some het words in action:

The house is big.
Het huis is groot.
The book is not big.
Het boek is niet groot.

And here are some de words:

The car is small.
De auto is klein.
Is the car also big?
Is de auto ook groot?

Location and contrast

Use daar (there) as the opposite of hier (here) to talk about location, and maar (but) to connect contrasting ideas.

The cat is there.
De kat is daar.
The dog is big, but the cat is small.
De hond is groot, maar de kat is klein.
The dog is here and the book is there.
De hond is hier en het boek is daar.
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