# "de" and "het"



## Joel Smit

*Hallo Dames en Heren,*



*-Are there any rules for “de” and “het” usage? (any tips would help)*

*Bedankt*


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## yannalan

Hallo
I know it is an affair of gender, but I let the Dutch and Belgians answer precisely.


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## Suehil

Hi Joel, Welcome to the forum.
Only a very few:  Words beginning with 'ge-' or ending with '-je' are neuter (het) and words ending in '-heid' are common (de).  There may be exceptions, but I can't think of any.
In most cases you just have to learn the noun complete with its article.


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## Lopes

Suehil said:


> Words beginning with 'ge-' are neuter (het)



I think there are a lot of exceptions for that: de gek(te), geest, gemeente, gemeenschap, gezondheid..


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## Joel Smit

*Thank you for the warm welcome,*

*From what I understand all (most) professions take “de” (de leraar, de  oefenmeester…), is that true?*


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## Lopes

Yes, I think that you could say that, I can't think of any exception right now. But remember that if you make a diminuitive from it, it allways takes 'het'.


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## sound shift

I have found a few more rules (in a reference grammar):

All infinitives used as nouns (e.g. _het eten_: eating) take *het*.

Adjectives used as nouns (e.g. _het vervelende: _the annoying thing) take *het*.

Nouns of the type _het *ge*berg*te* _(the mountain range), _het *ge*steen*te *_(the stones) take *het*.

All colours and all well-known metals take *het *(e.g. _het rood, het ijzer_).


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## Joel Smit

*
Any good "woordenlijst" with the "de" and "het" prefix I can find on the net?
*


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## Baunilha

check: www.vandale.nl
check: http://woordenlijst.org/

I guess you can find all the nouns including article ('de' and 'het').


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## Joel Smit

*Thanks guys!*


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## pdedecker

Yup, you can use vandale.nl/opzoeken/woordenboek/ to look up the gender of any Dutch word. It's something that you'll have to learn by hard, I'm afraid. And I know how frustrating this can be as I attended German class last year. They have three different propositions ("der", "die" and "das") and since the gender of German words often differed from their Dutch counterparts, I had to learn them by hard as well.

One more thing:


> *Hallo Dames en Heren,*


Unlike German people, we don't write nouns with a capital letter. So you can either say "Hallo dames en heren" or simply "Hallo".


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## Joel Smit

> Unlike German people, we don't write nouns with a capital letter. So you can either say "Hallo dames en heren" or simply "Hallo".


*Got it,
Thanks*


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## Suehil

Hi Pdedecker, welcome to the forum!  
You learn something 'by heart' - although sometimes it is 'hard' it's not what we say.


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## pdedecker

Thanks for pointing that out. I knew it meant "par coeur" in French, but I never actually thought it would be exactly the same in English.


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## Joannes

Two lists -- neither of them exhaustive of course, but they may be helpful:
*de* words: http://www.muiswerk.nl/WRDNBOEK/DEWOORD.HTM
(You can check here or in any dictionary whether they are masculine or feminine.)
*het* words: http://www.muiswerk.nl/WRDNBOEK/HETWOORD.HTM

By the way, *de* and *het* are no prefixes, but seperate articles.


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## Joel Smit

Thanks!


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## pdedecker

Joannes said:


> Two lists -- neither of them exhaustive of course, but they may be helpful:


These lists are incorrect. Take 'aandeel' for example. It's on the "de" list, but according to vandale.nl/opzoeken/woordenboek/?zoekwoord=aandeel it should be on the "het" list. I'm sure that it's not the only word that has been put on the wrong list.


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## Joannes

pdedecker said:


> These lists are incorrect. Take 'aandeel' for example. It's on the "de" list, but according to vandale.nl/opzoeken/woordenboek/?zoekwoord=aandeel it should be on the "het" list.


Yes, you're right, although it is on the *het*-list too. 

Obviously I didn't check all the words on these lists, and I'm not going to. But they may still be helpful if you want to know words that take either of the articles, and not just what's the article of a certain word. Double checking of single words is adviseable.


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## Baunilha

Google could help you out too, Joel.
But not always.


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