De or Het ?

In the Dutch language there are three genders:

1.masculine
2.feminine
3.neuter

Every noun is associated with one gender, and the gender must be learned when learning the noun. Nouns are also marked for number, size and definiteness.

When you want to refer to one particular person or item, you use the definite article de for masculine-feminine words and het or "'t" for neuter words:

de man - the man (masculine)
de vrouw - the woman (feminine)
het / 't huis - the house (neuter)

In plural always de is used:

de mannen - the men
de vrouwen - the women
de huizen - the houses

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