This lesson is all about pronunciation, time to get to grips with those typical Dutch gurgling and grunting sounds!

Contents Lesson 1

• 1a. Vowels a-, aa-, o-, oo-, oor/or-, e-, ee-, eer/er-, u-, uu-, i-
• 1b. Double vowels and diphthongs ie-, eu-, eur-, oe-, ei-/ij-, au-/ou-, ui-
• 1c. Consonants g-/ch-, j-, ng-, v-, w-

Lesson 1a. Vowels

a- short a-: between `duck’ and `dock’. The a- is found in words such as klank (sound), and rand (edge).

aa- (long a-: not found in English at all. It is produced by shaping the mouth for the vowel-sound in the English words `by’, `why’, etc. but opening the mouth much wider). It is found in Dutch words such as: kaas (cheese) and gaan (to go) and also in open syllables, i.e. in syllables ending on a vowel, as in maken (to make) and praten (to talk).

o- Short o- more or less as in English `more’, `for’, etc. but quite short). It is found in Dutch words such as bos (woods) and kop (head of an animal).

oo- (long oo- as in English `go’ and `low’ but without the glide towards w.) It is found in Dutch words such as groot (big, large) and rood (red).

Note iv As in the case of the a-, o- is pronounced oo- if the syllable in which it appears, is open such as in bomen. If this word is split into two syllables, we get bo-men. This word is therefore pronounced `boo-men’, but may not be spelled this way. We find this situation in words like wonen (to live), dozen (boxes), probleem (problem), and over (over). (do-zen, (boxes), sym-bo-len, (symbols) and pro-bleem, (problem).

oor/or- (The pronunciation is a bit different If the letter r comes after double oo or if the last o is part of an open syllable and followed by the letter r) The pronuncation comes very close to the English words `your’ and `for’

e- (short e-: more or less like the sound in English `set’, `crest’, etc. but somewhat rounder, approaching the a- in English `sat’, etc.) It is found in Dutch words such as mes (knife) and kerk (church).

ee- (long ee-: more or less like the English ay- as in `say’, `crazy’, etc. but without the glide towards `i’). It is found in Dutch words such as veel (much, many) and steen (stone, brick). If e- is in an open syllable, as in stegen (ste-gen) (alleys), the word is pronounced stee-gen, but never spelled that way. This is also the situation in words like breken (to break), weten (to know), vergeten (to forget) and spelen (to play).

Note v The explanation of the difference in pronunciation of e- and ee- only applies to words in which these sounds receive the stress. If the e-sound is unstressed, such as in words like lopen (to walk), bedanken (to thank) and also in de (the), the e- is pronounced as in similar words in English, such as father, paper, etc.

eer/er- (The pronunciation is a bit different If the letter r comes after double ee or if the last e is part of an open syllable and followed by the letter r) The pronunciation comes very close to the English words `near’ and `fear’

u- (short u- heard in English words like `bird’, `sir’ and `fur’. It is found in Dutch words such as bus (bus) and krul (curl).

uu- (long uu-: This sound is completely unknown in English. It is produced by shaping the lips as for the English sounds under 7 or the Dutch ee and then pouting the lips as though you were going to whistle or kiss). It is found in Dutch words such as vuur (fire) and muur (wall).

Note vi If the u- appears at the end of a syllable, it is pronounced like uu-.This is the case in words like muren (walls), avonturen (adventures), evalueren (to evaluate), rumoer (noise) and vuren (fires).

i- (short i-: similar to the English i in `sit’ and `this’.) It is found in Dutch words like zitten (to sit) and blik (tin, can).

Note vii Sometimes the i- is long (as in -ie below). We find this in words like radio, idee, and kritiek.

Lesson 1b. Double vowels and diphthongs

ie- (long ie-: heard in English words like `seen’ and `green’ but not stretched). It is found in Dutch words such as lied (song) and vriend (friend).

Note viii i- does not have a long variant: i- and ie- are, in fact, two practically unrelated sounds.

eu- This is a special vowel as it consists of two letters but comprises only one sound. It is unknown in English. It is formed by shaping the lips and tongue for the oo-sound after which the tongue is lowered and pulled back somewhat. It appears in Dutch words such as neus (nose) and keuken (kitchen). Words with ö are pronounced as eu as in föhn (hair drier) but there are not many words with ö in Dutch

eur- This sound is also unknown in English and sounds a bit different than the eu sound when it is followed by the letter r. It comes very close to the Dutch u but pronounced a bit longer.

oe- This sound is comparable to the vowel sound in English words such as `dew’, `do’ and `two’. It is found in the Dutch words vroeg (early) and toen (then – past tense).

ei-/ij- There is no difference between the pronunciation nor between the functions of these two symbols. The sound resembles the ay-sound in the English words say and take, including the i-sound at the end but shorter. The meaning of the Dutch words rijst (rice) and reist (the verb `travels’) can, in spoken form, only be determined by the context in which the words appear.

au-/ou- As with ei/ij, there is no difference between au- and ou- except in the spelling, and in this case not even in the meaning. The spelling can only be explained historically. The sounds appear in Dutch words such as gauw (quickly) and goud (gold) and is comparable to the vowel sound in the English word now.

ui- This is apparently one of the most difficult sounds to produce for new learners. It is formed lower in the mouth and by rounding the lips a little less than for the uu-. The sound produced is between the ou- and the eu-. It is found in the Dutch words huis (house) and vuil (dirty).

Note ix Diphthongs have no long and short forms. There is therefore no doubling of either vowels or consonants if the stem of a given word contains a diphthong. The plural of vuist (fist) is vuisten (fists) and of kruis (cross) it is kruizen(crosses).

Lesson 1c. Consonants

Note x The consonants s, f, h, b, d, z, l, m, n, and ng are pronounced the same way in Dutch as in English. P, t, and k are pronounced without the puff of air (called aspiration.) Sometimes the g is pronounced like zh in words borrowed from French. One last vowel sound is found in various Dutch spellings. It is pronounced like uh, as in along or sofa. For example, this sound is found in de (the), een (a), aardig (nice), vriendelijk (kind), and honing (honey)

g-/ch- The g is the voiced variant of the ch. In practice there is little noticeable difference between the g- and ch-. The sound is formed in the back of the mouth and is produced by a rasping or friction between the upper and lower part of the throat. It is found in Dutch words such as acht (eight) and gras (grass).

j- This letter is always pronounced like the English y- and it appears in Dutch words such as ja (yes), jij (you) and bejaard (aged).

ng- This sound resembles the ng sound in the English words king, ring and wing

v- This sound closely resembles its English counterpart but is just slightly closer to f-. It appears in Dutch words such as van (of, from) and overal (everywhere).

w- The Dutch w- is almost like the English v-. The English w- has no equivalent in Dutch. The Dutch w- is found in words such as water (water) and wijn (wine).

Note xi A d- at the end of a word is pronounced like a t-. This happens in words like rood (red) and bekend (well-known).

Note xii A b- at the end of a word is pronounced like a p-, eg. in heb (have) and lob (lobe).

This is the end of the first lesson. We hope that you were able to pronounce the words correctly. As you may have heard some sounds are unknown in other languages. Don’t worry. If you practice these sounds regularly, eventually they will be easier to pronounce. We wish you a lot of fun with the Speakdutch lessons.

Dit is het einde van deze les. We hopen dat je de woorden goed hebt kunnen uitspreken. Zoals je misschien gehoord hebt, zijn sommige klanken onbekend in andere talen. Maak je geen zorgen. Als je deze klanken geregeld oefent zijn ze op den duur gemakkelijker uit te spreken. Wij wensen je heel veel plezier met de Speakdutch lessen.

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