Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "blij" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce blij in Dutch?

blij is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /blɛi/. It means “happy.” blay — a bright l and the ij diphthong. Nothing here rhymes with English "bly" or "blee."

blay — a bright l and the ij diphthong. Nothing here rhymes with English "bly" or "blee."

blij /blɛi/

One beat, ending on the open diphthong with no consonant to close it — which makes this word unusually exposed. Inflected as "blije," a schwa follows and a soft y-glide appears between them, so the two forms feel quite different in the mouth.

Listen: blij

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Sound it out

bl A clean b into a forward, bright l. Keep the tongue body low; English darkens the l in "blue," and that darkness colours the vowel afterwards.

ij The Dutch diphthong, starting around the vowel of "met" and rising toward "ee." Because nothing follows it, the glide has room to complete and is very audible here.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik ben vandaag heel blij.

I am very happy today.

Listen: Ik ben vandaag heel blij.

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"Ik ben vandaag heel blij" ends on the adjective, so the diphthong is the last thing a listener hears — there is nowhere to hide a lazy vowel. The intensifier "heel" comes before it, exactly where English puts "very."

Where English speakers slip

The reflex is "blye," using the wide diphthong of "my." Dutch ij starts mid-front and rises only a short distance. Because the word ends on the vowel, this error is more audible here than in a word like "blijven," where consonants follow and mask it. Get it right in "blij" and it transfers everywhere else.