Tag Archives: accents
Wat móét ik nou hiermee? Accents on Dutch Words, Explained Posted by Sten on Feb 21, 2022
Dutch is pretty straightforward. Unlike German, French, Spanish or some Nordic languages, we don’t put accents on our letters! But then words like ingeënt, kopiëren, reünie, drieënvijftig, geïnd and tweeën say hello. This is what we call het trema (diaeresis), and in the Netherlands, it doesn’t signify that we pronounce the letter differently, but it’s rather an indication that…
Local Language: The Dutch say WHAT in Rotterdam? Posted by Sten on Sep 28, 2021
The Netherlands is a small country. Everybody is tall, eats cheese and speaks Dutch. But don’t let the small country size fool you – there are quite some linguistic differences in the Netherlands that you are quite likely to encounter! In this series, we’ll take a look at typical dialects and words that you only…
Sounding Dutch in Dutch: Consonant Aspiration Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Mar 29, 2016
You may have noticed that Dutch sounds kind of weird. It’s full of these sometimes ridiculous-seeming sounds that you’ve never heard before setting foot in the Netherlands, Even once you’ve gotten your hard g and tongue-cramping diphthongs like eu and ui under control, people can still hear you’re foreign, and it’s because of the phonetic details. This is because…