Skip to content

De or het buurman?

de buurman

neighbor (male)

/ˈbyːr.mɑn/

Article and plural

Singular
de buurman
Plural (meervoud)
de buurmannen
Diminutive
het buurmannetje

Why de?

  • No reliable spelling rule decides this one, so de buurman is learned together with the word.
  • Every plural takes de, so it is de buurmannen whatever the singular takes.
  • Every diminutive takes het: het buurmannetje.

The rules for de and het, with the exceptions

Check the article of another noun

What de changes

SingularPlural
this, thesedeze buurmandeze buurmannen
that, thosedie buurmandie buurmannen
which (the … that)de buurman die …de buurmannen die …
ouronze buurmanonze buurmannen

Meaning in English

  1. neighbor (male)

Remember buurman with Spreek

Spreek keeps the Dutch words you meet, article included, reviews them with you and then has you use them in a spoken conversation.

See what Spreek does

FreeiPhoneDownload on the App Store (opens in a new tab)