Skip to content

De or het mes?

← Dutch words

het mes

knife, cleaver

/mɛs/

Forms

Singular
het mes
Plural
de messen
Diminutive
het mesje

Why het?

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

The rules for de and het, with the exceptions

Meaning in English

  1. knife, cleaver
  2. blade

Remember mes 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