Learn Dutch - Episode 9: THE in Dutch (de/het/een)

In this podcast series you will learn a few Dutch words and pronunciations every week in a few minutes. The lessons are in English and are hosted by Dutch teacher Joyce Diebels from Dutch with Joyce. This time you get an answer to the question: when do you use de, het or een?

Credit: Pinterest @jannekebroere

Words from lesson 9: THE in Dutch (de/het/een)

• de comes for the names of people like de moeder (the mother) and de leraar (the teacher) and work titles e.g. de tandarts (the dentist) and de bakker (the baker)
• there is one exception —> het kind (the child)
• always use de when plural —> het kind / de kinderen (the children) or het boek / de boeken (the book(s))
• use het for diminutives, in Dutch identified by -je/-tje/-pje at the end of a word
• een has two meanings: a and one

English	Dutch
the child	het kind
the children	de kinderen
the boy	de jongen
the little boy	het jongetje
the little boys	de jongetjes
a boy	een jongen
one boy	één jongen

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