Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "alles" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce alles in Dutch?

alles is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈɑləs/. It means “everything.” AH-luss — open "ah" first, a weak schwa second, and a hissing s at the end.

AH-luss — open "ah" first, a weak schwa second, and a hissing s at the end.

alles /ˈɑləs/

The rhythm falls sharply from AH- to -lus. That shape distinguishes it from "al" plus a separate word, and it stays fixed no matter where the word sits in a sentence — Dutch does not shift stress within a word for emphasis.

Listen: alles

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Sound it out

a Kept brief by the doubled l behind it. Dutch uses that double consonant purely as a signal that the vowel stays short.

ll A single bright l in speech — the doubling is orthographic only. Keep the tongue tip forward so it does not darken into the hollow English l of "all."

es An unstressed ending: schwa plus a clean voiceless s. It never sounds like the English plural "-ess" with a full vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik heb alles gedaan.

I did everything.

Listen: Ik heb alles gedaan.

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"Ik heb alles gedaan" pairs the pronoun with the past participle "gedaan," which lands at the end of the clause where Dutch always parks participles. The ge- prefix of "gedaan" is unstressed too, so the sentence has exactly two peaks: on AL- and on -DAAN.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers pull the first vowel toward the "aw" of "all" and darken the l along with it, producing "AWL-us." Dutch keeps both bright and forward. The final s also tends to get voiced into a z by English speakers who expect a plural ending; it is a plain hiss, and this word is grammatically singular anyway.