You learned the big -e rule. Here are the only three situations where an adjective stays bare, memorise them and you are basically done.
1. Singular het-word with _een_ or no article
This is the headline exception and it trips up every learner. When the noun is a singular het-word and is introduced with _een_ (or nothing at all), the adjective loses its -e.
| een groot huis | a big house | _(not: een grote huis)_
| een mooi kind | a beautiful child
| groot huis | big house _(bare noun, still no -e)_
If you swap _een_ for _het_, the -e comes back:
| het grote huis | the big house
| het mooie kind | the beautiful child
2. Predicative position
When an adjective sits after a linking verb (_zijn_, _worden_, _blijven_, _lijken_, _schijnen_), it never inflects. This is true for every noun gender.
| de hond is klein | the dog is small
| het huis is groot | the house is big
| de kinderen zijn lief | the children are sweet
| hij wordt moe | he is getting tired
Easy way to spot it: if the adjective appears AFTER the noun + a _to-be_-style verb, leave the adjective alone.
3. A small group of determiners
After _elk_, _ieder_, _menig_, _welk_, and _zulk_, a singular het-noun still takes a bare adjective, these determiners behave like _een_.
| elk groot huis | every big house
| ieder mooi kind | each beautiful child
| zulk lekker eten | such tasty food
| welk Nederlands boek | which Dutch book
(For singular de-words after these determiners, you still add -e: _elke grote hond_, _iedere lieve leerling_.)
A pocket rule for mental fast-recall
When you need to decide mid-sentence, ask yourself two questions:
- Is this noun singular het-word?
- Is the article _het_ / a possessive / a demonstrative?
If the answer is YES to both → add -e. YES to first, NO to second → leave it bare.
Everything else, plural nouns, de-words, predicative use, follows from the main -e rule on the previous page.