Pronunciation

In this text and following lessons we'll use /Word/ to give an example of an English word which contains one more (capitalized) letters which have an approximate pronunciation as the Dutch letters, syllable or word. We'll use (and already have) {word} to denote the English translation of a Dutch word.

The consonants are:

B as in "bad" /Bath/ (B at end of words sounds like "P") D as in "dom" /Doll/ (D at end of words sounds like "T") F as in "fijn" /Fix/ and "laf" /lauGH/ G as in "god" (sounds somewhat like the "ch" in /loCH ness/, very throaty, and "dag" G as in "garage" /SHow/ only used in words originating from the French. H as in "help" /Help/ J as in "jas" /Yes/ (not like J in /Jet/, that's more a DJ sound) J as in "journaal" /CHopin/ K as in "kat" /Cat/ and "ik" /liCK/ L as in "los" /Lot/ and "tol" /toLL/ M as in "mijn" /Mine/ and "dom' /suM/ N as in "niet" /Not/ and "tin" /tiN/ P as in "pas" /Pen/ and "sop" /cuP/ Q as in "quiz" /Quiz/ R as in "rot" /Run/ and "kar" /faR/ (don't roll it) S as in "sop" /Sob/ and "los" /boSS/ T as in "tin" /Tin/ and "rot" /weT/ V the same as "F", "V" can't be at the end of a word or syllable. W as in "wat" /Where/ and "ruw" /hoW/ X as in "sex" /seX/ Z as in "zak" /Zoo/ and "quiz" /quiZ/

The vowels differ more from the English, and they are so many ways to pronounce them!!

Pffff. To make it more difficult is that the sound of a vowel depends (just like in English) on the surrounding consonants and other vowels. Two or three adjacent vowels can also form diphthongs, i.e. they makes one sound together.

The vowels are:

A as in "kat", sounds something like /cUt/ E as in "ben" /zEn/ E as in "gokken", this is another sound for the single E, it sound like the mute "e" in English, like in {givEn}, it is used mostly when the syllable with the "e" doesn't have the emphasis (stress handled in further lesson) I as in "ik" /dIck/ O as in "dom" /sOld/ U as in "put" (sounds a bit like /wOrd} or {bIrd}, say the "i" sound and round your lips to a small circle) IJ as in "hij", sounds not entirely not like /whY/

The diphthongs are:

AA as in "daar" (a bit like /jA/ or /fAther/, but not really) AAI as in "saai", a bit like the "ij" sound, only longer AU as in "rauw" (same sound as OU) CH as in "lach" (same sound as "G") CH as in "douchen" /SHow/ (pronounced like "sj"), from the French, always pronounced like this before the "OU" difhthong EAU as in "bureau" /gO/ (pronounced like an "oo"), it's a French word, in previous spelling also written with "o" instead of "eau" EE as in " reet" /rAte/, sounds different before an "R", more like a long "i", like as in "meer" /gEAr/ EI as in "zeik" /dIke/, sounds like the "ij" EEU as in "eeuw", almost like the long "ee" sound. It's always followed by a "w" EU as in "neus" (a sound not known in English, just listen), sounds different before an "R", more like a long mute "E", like in "deur". IE as in "lief" /sEE/ IEU as in "nieuw" a bit like /sEAl/, always before a 'w' NG as in "zingen" and "lang" /loNG/ OE as in "boek" /lOOk/ OEI as in "groeien" /OOJ/ OI as in "hoi" /bOY/, not many words with this sounds though. OO as in "hoop" /hOpe/, sounds different before an "R", more like a long "o", like as in "door" /dOOr/ OOI as in "mooi", a long OI OU as in "goud" /lOUd/

OU as in "douchen" /lOOse/ (pronounced like an "oe"), from the French, always prononced like this before "CH", and in some other French words SCH as in "schip", the "s" followed by the "CH" sound, but when an "r" follows "sch", as in "schreeuwen". At the end of a word its always preceded by a "i" and sounds like the "ies" sound, like in "logisch" (sometimes even written with "ies", like "logies", but only in 'rebelian', non-standard Dutch texts). SJ as in "sjaal" /SHow/ TS as in "tsaar" /TSar/ UI as in "huis" (a sound not present in English, a bit like saying the mute "e" followed by the "UU" sound, but very smooth) UU as in "muur" (a sound not present in English, sounds like the French 'lune', try to say the "ie" /sEE/ sound, and round your lips)

The short vowels "a", "e", "o" and "u" are pronounced as the long vowels "aa", "ee", "oo" rsp. "uu" when they are in a so-called 'open' syllable. An open syllable ends with a single consonant and is followed by another vowel.

So examples are: "tAken", "gOdin", "gEven", "Uren".

NOT open syllables are: "lAchen", "wErken", "hEbben", "hEb".

But the "e" is pronounced as a mute "e" when the emphasis (stress) is not on the syllable (more about this in another lesson). The "a", "o" and "u" are also pronounced long when the are at the end of a word (or used as a single letter, but then the word would consist of this single letter, and would therefore end with the letter, so what am I getting on about?), like in "ja", "zo" and "nu". Finally the letters of the alphabet

as promounced: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXIJYZ

Spelling
Well, Dutch has all the usual letters of the alphabet, plus one.

That is: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz and (ij) Yep, that new letter "" is very hard to enter on a normal QWERTY keyboard.

That's why we normally use "ij" (an "i" and an "j") in typed documents (in handwritten documents usually the "" is used).

So "ij" actually counts as one letter in Dutch (we even have it in Scrabble . Of course, we also have the i and j as separate letters, but I can't come up with a word in which j follows i and isn't used as an "ij". So whenever you see "ij" in a word it's the .

For example: "hij" {he}, "IJsselmeer" (name of a lake).

The capital "ij" is written as "IJ"; so both letters are capitalized. -

The "y" is like in English, sometimes vowel, and sometimes a consonant.

It is only used in words derived from a foreign language, like Greek, e.g. "hypnose" {hypnosis} or "yoghurt" {yogurt}. As in most languages the first character of a sentence starts with a capital (well almost all of the time).

Also names of persons, geographical names start with a capital. Nouns don't normally start with a capital (it does so in the German language for instance). Sentences end with a "."

The Dutch language has many diphthongs (two or more vowels forming one sound together). They are:

"aa", "aai", "au", "ee", "eeu", "ei", "eu", "ie", "ieu", "oe", "oei", "oi", "oo", "ooi", "ou", "ui", "uu" Dutch also has some sorta consonant diphthongs. They are:

"ch", "ng", "sch" Why have two things for the same sound? In the old times (before 1920) the "g" and the "ch" sounded different, this also is valid for other letters and diphthong, like "ij" and "ei" which have the same sound. We call "ij" 'long' and "ei" short.

Word order Structurally, Dutch is a V2 language, which means that the inflected verb is raised to the second position in the main clause. Word order is SVO in main clauses and SOV in subordinate clauses. Research has led to the general assumption that Dutch has an underlying SOV word order. Jan vertelde dat hij zijn moeder wilde gaan helpen *John told that he his mother wanted go help John said that he wanted to go help his mother. Inversion of the subject and verb is used in interrogative sentences: Jij ging naar de winkel You went to the store. Ging jij naar de winkel? *went you to the store? Did you go to the store? It also occurs when the first phrase in a sentence is not its subject. Here are some rules about where to place the words in a Dutch sentence: * Adjectives always come before the noun to which they belong. Rode appels - red apples * In statements, the subject always comes first or third and the auxiliary verb comes second. If there is no auxiliary verb, the main verb comes second. If there is a separable prefix, the prefix goes on the end of the sentence, as does the main verb (with separable prefix on the beginning of the verb) if there is an auxiliary verb. * In yes/no questions, the verb usually comes first and the subject comes second. If there is an auxiliary verb or separable prefix, it follows the same rules as the previous one outlined for putting parts on the end. If the subject comes before the verb, this often implies disbelief, like in English: "The prisoner escaped?" vs. "Did the prisoner escape?". * In a command, the verb comes first. * The time aspect usually comes before the place aspect.