Articles and Gender in Dutch

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Apparently you’ve succesfully finished lesson one, so now we can continue with the second lesson. In this lesson you’ll learn how to describe certain objects. First of all, we are going to teach you articles. In the previous lesson you learned how to say “He is father” but that sounds a little bit tarzan-like. Wouldn’t it sound better if you could say “He is a father” or “He is the father” ? That’s what you’ll learn now. Take a look at these Dutch sentences:

Hij is een vader	He is a father
Zij is de moeder	She is the mother
Het is de stoel	It is the chair
Het is een stoel	It is a chair
Het is een huis	It is a house
Het is het huis	It is the house

It looks pretty logical at the beginning. You’ll quickly notice that “een” is the correct Dutch translation of “a” and “an”. But what’s the correct translation of “the”? You see two different Dutch word for “the”, you see “de” and “het”, but which one is the right one? Of course they are both right, otherwise we wouldn’t show them to you.

Gender

But how can it be possible that the word “the” has two translations in Dutch? This has to do with the difficult concept of noun gender, a concept not known in English but is in almost every other language.

In Dutch, the definite articles “de” and “het” both mean “the” in English, but they are used in different contexts depending on the gender of the noun they accompany.

“De”: This definite article is used with common gender nouns (de woorden), which include most masculine and feminine nouns. For example, “de kat” (the cat) and “de tafel” (the table) are both common gender nouns.
“Het”: This definite article is used with neuter gender nouns (het woorden), which typically include objects, concepts, or abstract nouns. For example, “het huis” (the house) and “het boek” (the book) are both neuter gender nouns.

The gender of Dutch nouns is not always predictable and often needs to be learned along with the vocabulary. However, there are some general rules and patterns that can help determine the gender of nouns. For instance, many nouns referring to living beings (such as people and animals) are common gender (de), while most nouns ending in “-je” are neuter gender (het). Additionally, there are some irregularities and exceptions in the language.

The use of “de” and “het” in Dutch is an essential aspect of grammar that learners need to grasp in order to correctly articulate sentences and express ideas in Dutch.

Well, this noun gender concept might have confused you a bit. For English speaking people it can be a weird concept. But if English is not your native language, then it’s most likely that you are already familiar with noun gender. From now on we will also mention the article of a noun in our vocabulary lists. Note that the indefinite article (“a” and “an”) is gender independent and is always translated with “een”.

Hebben – to have

In this lesson we’ll also introduce another irregular Dutch verb, the verb “hebben”, which means “to have”. Take a look at the full conjugation and translation of this verb:

Ik heb	I have
Jij hebt	You have
Hij/Zij/Het heeft	He/she/it has
Wij hebben	We have
Jullie hebben	You have
Zij hebben	They have

Now you’ve learned a new verb, memorize it.

Summary

In this lesson you’ve learned the concept of noun gender, what articles to use, and another irregular verb.

Vocabulary

Learn the following words. The words of the previous lesson are mentioned again, but this time we also show what definite article to use.

Vocabulary

de vader	the father
de moeder	the mother
de oma	the grandmother
de opa	the grandfather
de stoel	the chair
het huis	the house
de tafel	the table
de kat	the cat
de hond	the dog
het bot	the bone
het dier	the animal
het gebouw	the building

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English:

De kat
Het huis
De auto
Het boek
De hond
De tafel
De stoel
De fiets
De telefoon
De computer
De bloem
De lamp
De vork
De lepel
Het bord
De pen
De school
De klok
De deur
Het raam

Solution of Exercise A:

De kat (the cat)
Het huis (the house)
De auto (the car)
Het boek (the book)
De hond (the dog)
De tafel (the table)
De stoel (the chair)
De fiets (the bicycle)
De telefoon (the phone)
De computer (the computer)
De bloem (the flower)
De lamp (the lamp)
De vork (the fork)
De lepel (the spoon)
Het bord (the plate)
De pen (the pen)
De school (the school)
De klok (the clock)
De deur (the door)
Het raam (the window)

Solutions

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