Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "blauw" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce blauw in Dutch?

blauw is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /blɑu/. It means “blue.” blow (rhyming with "cow") — the final w is not pronounced as a separate sound.

blow (rhyming with "cow") — the final w is not pronounced as a separate sound.

blauw /blɑu/

One syllable, all of it stressed, with the diphthong providing the internal movement. Adding the adjective ending gives "blauwe," where the w suddenly becomes a real consonant between the two vowels — a nice demonstration that Dutch spelling encodes what happens when the word grows.

Listen: blauw

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Sound it out

bl A clean b into a bright l, with the tongue tip forward. Dutch avoids the dark, hollow l quality English uses in "blue."

au A diphthong starting at an open "ah" and gliding toward "oo," broadly like the vowel of "house." Dutch spells this same sound both "au" and "ou," another spelling pair with one pronunciation.

w Silent as a separate consonant — it is a spelling convention marking the end of the diphthong, not an extra sound. The word finishes on the vowel glide.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik heb een blauwe fiets.

I have a blue bike.

Listen: Ik heb een blauwe fiets.

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"Ik heb een blauwe fiets" is exactly that inflected case: before the noun, "blauw" takes -e and the w springs to life as a soft lip-teeth sound. The example thus teaches the adjective ending and the w's dual behaviour in one short phrase.

Where English speakers slip

Learners try to pronounce the w at the end, producing "blah-oo-wuh" with an extra syllable. The bare form ends on the diphthong and nothing more. The other error is reading "au" as the "aw" of "law" — a single flat vowel — when Dutch needs the two-part glide from "ah" up to "oo."