{"id":4910,"date":"2017-03-14T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=4910"},"modified":"2017-03-12T18:38:54","modified_gmt":"2017-03-12T18:38:54","slug":"pronouncing-the-r-in-dutch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/pronouncing-the-r-in-dutch\/","title":{"rendered":"Pronouncing the R in Dutch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The R<\/em> is by far the most interesting letter in Dutch pronunciation.<\/p>\n

It can be pronounced with a tap of the tip of the tongue, a contortion of the middle of the tongue, a gurgle from the throat, or any of a handful of other ways.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it sounds like a rolled Spanish r<\/i>, sometimes like a guttural French one, and in the city of Leiden you’ll even hear a distinctly American-sounding rhotic arrr<\/i>.<\/p>\n

What makes it so interesting is that the pronunciation of the letter r<\/em>\u00a0in Dutch tells more about the speaker than any other sound in the language.\u00a0When a Dutch speaker pronounces\u00a0a sentence like Het paard rent razendsnel richting de rare rivieren<\/i>, native speakers will hear not only a geographic marker but also clues to your education level, social class, and age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For learners, the r<\/em>\u00a0is also the sound that’s most likely to trigger the dreaded switch to English<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s the sound that’s quickest to betray a native English speaker hiding behind the\u00a0fa\u00e7ade of a memorized Dutch sentence: an r<\/em> that’s too heavily r<\/em>-ish usually plants a\u00a0foreign\u00a0flag on the tip of your tongue. Even using the wrong native Dutch pronunciation of the sound in the wrong place in a word\u00a0can draw\u00a0unwanted attention to the oddity of your accent.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quick crash course on the four most basic and widespread pronunciations of the Dutch r<\/em> (out of about 20 in total<\/a>), and how and where to deploy them. Keep in mind that none of these sounds are more ‘right’ than the other — accents and dialects vary widely across the Netherlands and Flanders, and you’ll hear all four of these sounds and more from evening newscasters, national politicans, and people you pass everyday on the street or the fietspad<\/i>. Feel each one out and find the one or combination that feels most natural and comfortable to you.<\/p>\n

Speaking ‘proper’: the trill r<\/h2>\n

Ask someone over the age of 50 or from the north of the Netherlands\u00a0and they’ll knowingly, proudly inform you that their own rolled tongue-r<\/em>, which strongly resembles its cousin in Spain, is the ‘proper’ way to speak Dutch. These speakers normally use a rolled or ‘trilled’\u00a0r<\/em> at the beginning of a word or syllable and before vowels, and alternate between this and the tap-r (below) in positions after vowels or at the ends of words.<\/p>\n