Questions & Answers about Het kind is een meisje.
Why do we use het for kind instead of de?
In Dutch, every noun belongs to a category that determines its definite article (the word for 'the'). Nouns are either common (using de) or neuter (using het). Kind is a neuter noun, so it always takes het. You usually just have to memorize whether a word is a de word or a het word.
Would we use de or het if we wanted to say 'the girl'?
We would use het meisje. Even though a girl is a female person, the word meisje ends in -je. This ending makes it a diminutive (a word for a small version of something). In Dutch, absolutely all diminutive words are neuter and take het.
Does the word een change depending on the noun's gender?
No, the indefinite article een (meaning 'a' or 'an') is the same for both de and het words. That is why it is een meisje here, just as it would be een kind for 'a child'.
Why is een sometimes written with accent marks (één), and why are they missing here?
Without accents, een is the indefinite article meaning 'a' or 'an' and is pronounced with a short, soft 'uh' sound. When written with accents as één, it means the number 'one' and sounds more like the English letter 'A'. Since this sentence says 'a girl' and not 'one girl', it is written without accents.
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