{"id":3108,"date":"2015-01-13T19:28:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T19:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=3108"},"modified":"2015-01-13T19:28:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T19:28:27","slug":"do-i-use-de-or-do-i-use-het","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/do-i-use-de-or-do-i-use-het\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I use &#8220;de&#8221; or do I use &#8220;het&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Something I&#8217;ve struggled with in Dutch is distinguishing when a noun (person, place thing) uses\u00a0<em>de<\/em> or\u00a0<em>het.\u00a0<\/em>I remember going over that while I was still living in Mexico, and although I know some of the rules, I cannot say I really KNOW them. Perhaps some of you already have this\u00a0<em>de\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0<em>het<\/em> dilemma out of the way, but it never hurts to freshen up the rules.<\/p>\n<p><i>De<\/i><\/p>\n<p>I find\u00a0<em>de<\/em> to be the most problematic because it is so similar to &#8220;the&#8221; in English. I automatically want to use\u00a0<em>de<\/em> for everything just because it sounds like &#8220;the.&#8221; Some of the rules for\u00a0<em>de<\/em> are the following:<\/p>\n<p>Use\u00a0<em>de\u00a0<\/em>for&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>words for fruits, plants, trees,<br \/>\n<em>de appel, de boom<\/em><\/li>\n<li>names of rivers and mountains<br \/>\n<em>de Maas<\/em><\/li>\n<li>numbers and letters<br \/>\n<em>de vier, de K<\/em><\/li>\n<li>most words for persons<br \/>\n<em>de ober, de leraar, de buurman<\/em><\/li>\n<li>words ending in -ie, -tie, -sie, etc.<br \/>\n<em>de familie, de visie, de filosofie<\/em><\/li>\n<li>words in plural, also called <em>meervoud<\/em><br \/>\n<em>de katten, de boeken<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are a lot more rules, but I find this to be some of the most used ones. If I missed one you think is important, please comment so we can all work on it!<\/p>\n<p>Use\u00a0<em>het<\/em> for&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>words ending in -je<br \/>\n<em>het boekje, het bloempje<\/em><\/li>\n<li>languages<br \/>\n<em>het Nederlands, het Spaans, het Duits, het Engels<\/em><\/li>\n<li>countries<br \/>\n<i>het Nederland, het Mexico<\/i><\/li>\n<li>cardinal direction<br \/>\n<em>het noorden, het zuiden, het oosten, het westen<\/em><\/li>\n<li>words beginning with be-, ge-, ver-, ont-<br \/>\n<em>het belang, het verstand, het gebouw<\/em><\/li>\n<li>words ending in -isme, -ment, -um<br \/>\n<em>het communisme, het instrument, het museum<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If I missed a group of words for\u00a0<em>het<\/em> that you think is important, please share it with the rest of us!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>When speaking Dutch, the article\u00a0<em>de\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0<em>het<\/em> tends to sound almost as if it is part of the noun. Listen to the news report about using animals\/pets for therapy and try to spot out which nouns use\u00a0<em>de\u00a0<\/em>and which use\u00a0<em>het.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Therapie met dieren populairder dan ooit - RTL NIEUWS\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o1Dl7Vgr39A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Something I&#8217;ve struggled with in Dutch is distinguishing when a noun (person, place thing) uses\u00a0de or\u00a0het.\u00a0I remember going over that while I was still living in Mexico, and although I know some of the rules, I cannot say I really KNOW them. Perhaps some of you already have this\u00a0de\u00a0or\u00a0het dilemma out of the way, but&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/do-i-use-de-or-do-i-use-het\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[27710,27711],"tags":[358639,117769,110],"class_list":["post-3108","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-dutch-grammar","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","tag-de-of-het","tag-dutch-grammar-2","tag-nouns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.0.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The rules for when to use &quot;de&quot; and when to use &quot;het.&quot;\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Karoly Molina\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"de,het,de of het,dutch grammar,nouns\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/do-i-use-de-or-do-i-use-het\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.0.1\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dutch Language Blog | Language and Culture of the Dutch-Speaking World\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do I use &quot;de&quot; or do I use &quot;het&quot;? 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