Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "brengen" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce brengen in Dutch?

brengen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈbrɛŋə(n)/. It means “to bring / take (to someone).” BRENG-uh — the ng is one sound as in "singer," with no hard g after it.

BRENG-uh — the ng is one sound as in "singer," with no hard g after it.

brengen /ˈbrɛŋə(n)/

The velar nasal straddles the boundary between the two syllables, closing the strong one and linking into the schwa. That linking is why the word sounds smooth rather than clipped despite the consonant cluster.

Listen: brengen

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Sound it out

br A clean b running into a light tap or scrape. Do not let the r bend the vowel that follows.

e A quick "eh," kept brief by the nasal cluster that follows.

ng A single velar nasal, exactly the sound at the end of English "sing." Critically, no separate g follows it — Dutch does not do the "fin-ger" pronunciation.

en Following a velar nasal, this ending blurs into it so completely that the word can sound like it ends on the ng itself.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik breng de taart mee naar het feest.

I'll bring the cake to the party.

Listen: Ik breng de taart mee naar het feest.

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"Ik breng de taart mee naar het feest" splits the separable verb "meebrengen," leaving "mee" stranded near the end. This is the Dutch pattern English speakers most often forget: the prefix detaches in a main clause and waits at the back with the other adverbial material.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers insert a hard g after the ng, saying "BRENG-gen," by analogy with words like "finger." There is only the nasal. The other slip is the vowel: English "bring" has a high short i, while Dutch has a clear "eh," so the two words are less alike than the spelling suggests.