Pronunciation & Sounds

Alphabet and pronunciation

The Dutch alphabet has 26 letters – just like in English. In fact, you don’t have to learn any new letters! Hurrah! However, there are a lot of differences and peculiarities in pronunciation. Some letters are pronounced differently, and there can be combinations of letters that may throw you for a loop.

Pronunciation

The way Dutch vowels sound depends on whether they are in open or closed syllables. A syllable is closed if it is in a consonant sandwich (e.g. bed, ‘bed’) and it is open if it is not (e.g. ga, ‘go’).

Dutch	IPA, Notes
A	[ɑ] (short), like in father. [a:] (long), like in car (Australian/New Zealand English)
B	[b], like in bait. At the end of a word: [p]
C	[s] or [k] depending on the vowel after the c
D	[d], like in duck. At the end of a word: [t]
E	[ɛ] (short), like in bed. [e:] (long), like in made. [ə], an ‘uh’ sound, like again; mostly at the end of verbs.
F	[f], like in feather
G	[ɣ] / [x], the infamous Dutch sound. It sounds a bit like loch (Scottish English). [g] (*goal_, ‘goal’) or [ʒ] (_bagage, ‘luggage’) in loan words
H	[ɦ], like in behind
I	[ɪ] (short), like in sit. [i] (long), like in deep
J	[j], like in yard
K	[k], like in kiss
L	[l], like in land
M	[m], like in man
N	[n], like in neck
O	[ɔ] (short), like in soft. [o:] (long), roughly like in bone**
P	[p], like in pen
Q	[k], only in foreign words and loanwords
R	[ʀ], an uvular trill (rolling r in back of the throat). However, there are more ways to pronounce the r in Dutch, depending on the place in a word: [ɹ] (alveolar approximant, "tap r"), [r] (alveolar trill, “rolling r”), and [ʁ] (uvular approximant, German/French r).
S	[s], like in sock
T	[t], like in tea
U	[ʏ] (short), roughly like future. [y] (long), roughly like new
V	[v], like in very
W	[ʋ], between wine and vine
X	[ks], only in foreign words and loanwords
Y	[j], only in foreign words and loanwords
Z	[z], like in zip

More pronunciation

Besides the letters of the alphabet, Dutch has a lot of combinations of letters that have their own sound. The most common ones are discussed below.

Dutch	IPA, Notes
ch	[ɣ] / [x], the infamous Dutch sound (again). It sounds a bit like loch (Scottish English). [ʃ] in loanwords, like chocolade and China. Can also sound like [tʃ], like in check.
ng	[ŋ], like in long
nj	[ɲ], like the Spanish ñ
nk	[ŋk], the ng sound followed by a k
sch	[sɣ] / [sx] at the beginning of words. At the end of a word, it sounds like [s]
tie	[tsi], at the end of words
tj	[c], is followed by an e, sounds like cheer
au, ou	[ʌu], like in out
ei, ij	[ɛi], roughly like may
eu	[øː], roughly like earth or bird
oe	[u], like boot
ui	[œy], tricky. Roughly like house (Scottish English)