Ah yes, the pronunciation… Unfortunately we can’t do more than the audio for the word of the day. If you do not have a Dutch guru nearby: below are some general guidelines.
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Consonants:
b is pronounced as in ‘bed’. At the end of a word, however, it is pronounced as in ‘pet’.
c is pronounced as in ‘seat’ when it is followed by e or i.
c is pronounced as in ‘cool’ when it is followed by a, o, or u.
d is pronounced as in ‘dad’. At the end of a word, however, it is pronounced as in ‘tear’.
f is pronounced as in ‘fear’.
g is pronounced as in the Scottisch word loch or as
in the name of the German composer Bach. Sometimes, when the word is
not of Dutch origin, it may be pronounced as in ‘get’ or as in
‘garage’.
h is pronounced as in ‘heat’.
j is pronounced as in ‘yawn’. Sometimes, when the
word is not of Dutch origin, it may be pronounced as in ‘garage’ or as
in ‘jam’.
k is pronounced as in ‘cool’.
l is pronounced as in ‘lime’.
m is pronounced as in ‘mouse’.
n is pronounced as in ‘near’.
p is pronounced as in ‘pet’.
q is always combined with u (qu) and is pronounced as k+w.
r is pronounced somewhat like the rolling Spanish
r, but it is pronounced much more in the throat, rather than in the
front.
s is pronounced as in ‘sew’.
t is pronounced as in ‘top’.
v is pronounced as in ‘vowel’. This consonant can never appear at the end of a word.
w is pronounced quite similar as v, but the upper
teeth are pressed tightly against the lower lips, so that less air
comes out.
x is pronounced as in ‘Mexico’.
y is usually pronounced as in ‘ill’ or as the ‘e’ in ‘we’. Sometimes it might be pronounced as in ‘yes’.
z is pronounced as in ‘zelda’. This consonant can never appear at the end of a word.
In addition, take special notice of the following combinations:
ch is pronounced as the Dutch g. In loan-words, however, it micht be pronounced as in ‘ship’.
sch is pronounced by pronouncing the s and ch fast after eachother.
ph is pronounced as in ‘four’.
sj is pronounced as in ‘ship’.
Consonants can be written either alone (e.g. b, n, s) or they can be
doubled (e.g. bb, nn, ss). The actual sound of the consonant remains
the same, as well as the length of pronunciation. However, single and
double written consonants influence the pronunciation of the vowels,
which precede the consonants. When a consonant is not doubled, the
vowel preceding this consonant is usually a long vowel. When the
consonant is doubled, the vowel preceding the consonant is usually a
short vowel.
Vowels:
The Dutch language contains short vowels and long vowels. Vowels are
pronounced short when they are written in single (i.e. a, e, i, o, u)
and when the word contains only one syllable or when the vowel is
followed by at least two consonants. Furthermore, short vowels are
never the last letter in a word. Their pronunciation is described below:
a is pronounced as in ‘father’.
e is pronounced as in ‘men’. However, when it is unstressed, it is pronounced as ‘uh’.
i is pronounced as in ‘him’.
o is pronounced as in ‘hot’.
u is not a known sound in English. It is somewhat
pronounced as in ‘her’, where the lips are rounded slightly.
Long vowels are not only pronounced slightly longer than the short
ones, but their sound actually changes. Vowels are pronounced long when
they are written in double (i.e. aa, ee, oo, or uu) or when the word
contains more than one syllable and the vowel is followed by only one
consonant, which is not the final character in the word. Last, the
vowel is pronounced long when the vowel is the last letter of the word.
And exception is the long i, which is always written as ie. The
pronunciation of long vowels described below:
aa/a is pronounced as a, but it is pronounced longer and ‘lighter’.
ee/e is pronounced as in ‘may’ when it is not
followed by r. When it is followed by r it is pronounced as in ‘here’.
When it stands at the end of a syllable, it is pronounced as ‘uh’.
ie is pronounced as in ‘we’.
oo/o is pronounced as in ‘no’ when it is not followed by r. When it is followed by r it is pronounced as in ‘more’.
uu/u is not a known sound in English. The sound can be produced by pronouncing the
short u, but by bringing the tongue and lips even more to front.
Last, there are six vowel-combinations and one
consonant/vowel-combination, which truly generate unique sounds. These
sounds are characteristic for the Dutch language. It has to be
admitted, that for non-natives this needs some practice. Remember that
each combination should be pronounced as one single sound.
ai is pronounced as the English word ‘ I ‘. It should be pronounced as one sound.
ei is pronounced by pronouncing the sound as it
appears in the English word ‘man’ followed by the Dutch sound ie. It
should be pronounced as one single sound.
ij is pronounced exactly in the same way as the Dutch ei-sound.
eu is pronounced by pronouncing the Dutch short u
directly followed by the Dutch long uu. However, when this sound is
followed by an r, the sound it pronounced as the Dutch short u
pronounced twice as long.
oe is pronounced as in the English word ‘who’.
ui is pronounced by pronouncing the sound as it appears in the English word ‘man’ followed by the Dutch long u.
uw is pronounced by pronouncing the Dutch long u followed by the Dutch w.
In order to indicate, that vowels which appear in combination with
other vowels are pronounced seperately, a so-called trema is used on
the final vowel of the combination. The trema are two dots ( ¨ ) which
are written above the vowel. Thus whereas ie is pronounced as one
sound, ië is pronounced by pronouncing each vowel seperately (i.e. i+e).
Sometimes an accent ( ´ ) is written on top of the e (é). This
usually appears on words of foreign origin, and indicates that the
vowel in question is stressed.
When a small accent (apostrophe) between a vowel and a consonant
appears ( ‘ ), the vowel preceding the accent is pronounced long. It is
a grammatical construction, which indicates the plural of a word.