When a Dutch adjective has no -e: een groot huis (a big house)

An adjective before a noun usually takes an -e ending: de grote hond (the big dog). The best-known exception is een groot huis (a big house). This page covers that rule and two other common patterns in which the usual -e does not appear.

The table below covers three common patterns. A het-word is a noun that takes het (‘the’), such as huis (house). Dutch also has fixed expressions and stylistic exceptions, so the table is not a complete list.

A regular adjective before a singular het-word normally has no inflectional -e after an indefinite determiner. It normally does take -e when the noun phrase is definite—for example, after het, a demonstrative, or a possessive. Compare the het-word huis (house) with the de-word auto (car):

In this table, the -e disappears only in the two indefinite het-word cells. The rule is singular: compare een nieuw huis (a new house) with nieuwe huizen (new houses).

Other common triggers are elk, ieder, welk, and zo'n. Examples include elk klein kind (every small child) and zo'n groot huis (such a big house).

An uncountable het-word can follow the same pattern after a quantity word or with no article: veel warm water (a lot of warm water) or simply warm water (warm water). Here, kind (child), huis (house), and water are all het-words.

After iets (something), niets (nothing), wat (something), veel (much), or weinig (little), a following adjective normally has a partitive -s. For example: Ik heb iets leuks gekocht. (I bought something nice.) This is a separate pattern from een groot huis.

Other examples are niets nieuws (nothing new), wat lekkers (something tasty), and iets moois (something beautiful).

If the adjective already ends in an s-sound, do not write a second s: iets grijs (something grey). The iemand/iets page covers more words in this group.

Some adjectives are invariant: their form does not change before a noun. One important group ends in unstressed -en and never adds a separate inflectional -e.

Many material adjectives belong to this group: houten (wooden), gouden (golden), zilveren (silver), stenen (stone), and glazen (glass). Some material adjectives do not end in -en. These -en forms stay the same before a de-word or a het-word.

• de houten tafel (the wooden table): a de-word, still with no extra -e.
• het glazen dak (the glass roof): a het-word, with the same adjective form.
• een gouden ring (a gold ring), een stenen muur (a stone wall).

The singular indefinite het-word rule does not mean ‘drop -e after een’. A de-word with een keeps its -e: een grote tafel (a big table), not een groot tafel.

Tafel (table), auto (car), and film (film) are de-words. Use:

• een grote tafel (a big table)
• een nieuwe auto (a new car)
• een leuke film (a nice film)

When in doubt, check whether the noun is a de-word or a het-word.