How to make the sounds

Good news: Dutch spelling is honest. Once you know the sounds, you can read any Dutch word out loud correctly, even one you have never seen. English cannot do that.

Here are the six that English speakers never guess right. Tap the speaker on each one and copy it out loud.

• goed

  good

  g / ch = a scrape at the back of the throat, like clearing it

• huis

  house

  ui = start at 'ow', slide towards 'uh', with round lips. No English equivalent.

• mijn

  my

  ij and ei sound identical: roughly 'ay' sliding into 'ee'

• leuk

  nice

  eu = say 'ay' with your lips pushed forward and rounded

• boek

  book

  oe = 'oo' as in book. Short and tight, never 'oh'.

• duur

  expensive

  uu = say 'ee' while rounding your lips into an O

Double the vowel, hold it longer. man is short. maan is long. That single difference changes the word.

• man / maan

  man / moon

  short vs long

• bom / boom

  bomb / tree

  short vs long

• zon / zoon

  sun / son

  short vs long

Two shortcuts that fix dozens of words at once:

1. 1The -n at the end of verbs and plurals is usually silent. werken sounds like 'werke'.
2. 2b and d at the end of a word go hard. heb sounds like 'hep'. goed sounds like 'khoot'.