Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "beginnen" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce beginnen in Dutch?

beginnen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /bəˈɣɪnə(n)/. It means “to start / begin.” buh-KHIN-uh — the stress is on the middle syllable, and that g is the harsh Dutch fricative.

buh-KHIN-uh — the stress is on the middle syllable, and that g is the harsh Dutch fricative.

beginnen /bəˈɣɪnə(n)/

The be- prefix pushes the beat onto the second syllable, be-GIN-nen, which happens to match English "begin" — a rare case where the English cognate gets the rhythm right even though it gets the consonant wrong.

Listen: beginnen

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Sound it out

be- Unstressed prefix, a bare schwa with no colour of its own.

g Velar friction opening the stressed syllable. English "begin" has a hard g here, which is precisely the sound Dutch does not use.

i Tight and brief, kept short by the doubled n behind it.

nn One n in speech; the doubling on paper is only there to protect the short vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

De film begint om acht uur.

The movie starts at eight.

Listen: De film begint om acht uur.

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"De film begint om acht uur" uses "om" for clock time and puts the conjugated "begint" in second position. Two velar fricatives appear in short order, in "begint" and "acht," so the sentence is a compact drill for keeping that sound consistent across different vowel environments.

Where English speakers slip

The English "begin" sits directly underneath this word and supplies a hard g automatically. That single substitution is the whole difficulty. Learners also over-articulate the double n, and some stress the first syllable by reflex, which produces "BEG-in-nen" — a word that would sound like a mistake to any Dutch ear.