Nouns and articles

A noun names a person, a thing or a place: de vrouw (the woman), het boek (the book), de stad (the city). Dutch has two words for the: de and het. Learn the article together with each noun; English does not tell you which Dutch article to use. Een means a or an and is used when introducing a person or thing. Use de or het when it is clear which person or thing you mean: Ik heb een boek. Het boek is nieuw. (I have a book. The book is new.) Ik heb een fiets. De fiets is oud. (I have a bicycle. The bicycle is old.)

Een is an article. Eén, with accents, emphasises the number one. A noun does not always need an article: Ik drink koffie. (I drink coffee.) Ik ben student. (I am a student.) Notice that Dutch normally has no article before a profession or role after zijn, whereas English uses a or an with a singular countable noun. Dutch plurals usually end in -en (boek → boeken; huis → huizen, with s changing to z), and sometimes in -s (tafel → tafels). The definite article is always de in the plural: het boek → de boeken. Een has no plural form: een boek → boeken, just as English has a book → books.

As in English, a noun does not change form when it changes from the subject to the object: De vrouw ziet de man. (The woman sees the man.) De man ziet de vrouw. (The man sees the woman.) Vrouw and man keep the same forms. The form can change for number: boek → boeken. Personal pronouns can change form according to their role in the sentence; this is covered in lesson 13.