hen or hun? A quick rule

Hen and hun both mean them (referring to people), and even native speakers mix them up. This page gives you a decision you can make in a few seconds. For the full background, see hen, hun or ze?.

Use hen after a preposition and as the direct object; use hun as the indirect object (the person who receives something) when there is no preposition. Work through these three checks in order:

1. Is there a preposition right in front of it (voor, met, aan, over, naar)? Then use hen: Ik doe het voor hen. (I do it for them.) Ik reken op hen. (I count on them.)
2. Is it the direct object — the person the action happens to? Then use hen: Ik zie hen. (I see them.) We hebben hen uitgenodigd. (We invited them.)
3. Is it the indirect object — the person who gets something, with no preposition? Then use hun: Ik geef hun het boek. (I give them the book.) Hij stuurde hun een brief. (He sent them a letter.)

A quick test for the indirect object: if you could put aan in front of the person (Ik geef het boek aan hen), the shorter version without aan takes hun (Ik geef hun het boek).

Separate from all this, hun means their in front of a noun: hun huis (their house), hun kinderen (their children). That hun never changes to hen.

In everyday speech, the unstressed ze covers both roles and is always correct: Ik zie ze (I see them), Ik geef ze het boek (I give them the book). Use ze when the people are not emphasised; switch to the full hen/hun in careful writing or when you stress the word.

The most common error is using hun as a subject: Hun hebben gelijk is wrong. The subject them-word is zij (or unstressed ze): Zij hebben gelijk. (They are right.) Hun and hen are only ever objects or, for hun, a possessive — never the subject of the sentence. If you get stuck on hen versus hun, remember that mixing them up is a minor slip, but using hun as a subject stands out.