Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "daar" in Dutch?

dahr — a long open "aah" with a light r. Rhymes with "naar" and "maar."

daar /daːr/

Like "hier," this word frequently carries the sentence focus, since pointing somewhere is usually the reason for saying it. Its long vowel gives it natural weight, so it does not need volume to be prominent.

Listen: daar

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Sound it out

d Made against the upper teeth rather than the ridge, and released quietly.

aa Long and open, the doubled letter marking length. It should last noticeably longer than a short a in a closed syllable.

r Either a tongue-tip flick or a soft back scrape, and either way it should not bend the vowel that precedes it.

Hear it in a sentence

De winkel is daar.

The shop is over there.

Listen: De winkel is daar.

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"De winkel is daar" ends on the adverb, and note that Dutch also uses "daar" as the first element of pronominal adverbs like "daarom" and "daarna." Recognising it inside those longer words makes a whole family of connectives easier to parse.

Where English speakers slip

The American r is the main damage: pronounced with a curled tongue it merges with the vowel and produces something like "dar." Keep the long "aah" pure and add the r afterward. Learners also confuse "daar" with the existential "er," which is a different word doing a different job despite both translating as "there."