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How does it sound?

When Dutch people learn to speak English, typically, they will have difficulty with

  • “th” which doesn’t exist in Dutch, so they will pronounce this as “d” or “t”. ‘Three’ will then sound like ‘tree’.
  • “a” as in ‘bad’ or ‘flat’ which also doesn’t exist in Dutch and which they will pronounce as “e”. So if your name is ‘Pat’, it will sound like ‘Pet’ click to hear the pronunciation ! Other examples are flat, manager, caravan or tram
  • “oo” as in ‘book’, which will sound like the Dutch equivalent ‘boek’ click to hear the pronunciation

You may find this hilarious, but the other way around, there are some sounds that learners of Dutch find hard to master too, for example, the “g”. See if you can do better by listening to the sound files below and having a go at them yourself. If you can do this, you are well under way to being a very accomplished learner of Dutch indeed!

R rood, oren, hoor click to hear the pronunciation
G geen, leeg, tegen click to hear the pronunciation
GR groot, groen, integratie click to hear the pronunciation
SCH schoon, schoen, schuur click to hear the pronunciation
SCHR schreeuw, schroeien, verschrikkelijk click to hear the pronunciation

You can listen to a Dutch song with translations and questions on www.dutch.ac.uk, go to ‘Try Dutch; Language taster course’ and ‘It is a night’.