Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "ander" in Dutch?

AHN-dur — open back "ah" under the stress, then a weak ending with a very light r.

ander /ˈɑndər/

The -er ending takes nothing, leaving the accent at the front. Compare the adverb "anders," which adds an s to the same skeleton: the rhythm is untouched and the beat stays exactly where it was.

Listen: ander

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Sound it out

a Short and open, made at the back of the mouth and closed by the cluster behind it.

nd Both consonants clearly pronounced, and the d keeps its voicing because it sits inside the word.

er An unstressed ending: schwa plus a barely-there r. Casual speech reduces it almost to a bare "-uh."

Hear it in a sentence

Heb je een ander boek voor me?

Do you have another book for me?

Listen: Heb je een ander boek voor me?

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"Heb je een ander boek voor me?" leaves the adjective uninflected because "boek" is a neuter het-word preceded by "een" — one of the few contexts where Dutch adjectives take no -e. With a de-word it would be "een andere stoel."

Where English speakers slip

The American r turns the weak ending into a full syllable, giving "AN-durrr." Keep it faint. The bigger difficulty is the inflection: "ander" versus "andere" depends on the following noun's gender and article, and English speakers, having no such system, tend to pick one form and use it everywhere.