Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de familie" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de familie in Dutch?

de familie is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də faˈmili/. It means “family.” duh fah-MEE-lee — stress on the second syllable, and the final -ie is a bright "ee."

duh fah-MEE-lee — stress on the second syllable, and the final -ie is a bright "ee."

de familie /də faˈmili/

The accent sits on the second syllable, as it does in the Latin source. Loanwords like this one systematically break the Dutch front-stress habit, and "familie," "muziek," "politie" and "vakantie" all belong to that end-heavy group.

Listen: de familie

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Sound it out

fa- An unstressed opening: a clean f and a short a, passing quickly on the way to the beat.

mi- The stressed syllable, with a long bright "ee." It is the acoustic centre of the word and should be clearly the loudest part.

-lie A bright l plus another "ee." The final vowel keeps its full quality rather than reducing to a schwa, which is typical of borrowed words in Dutch.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik hou van mijn familie.

I love my family.

Listen: Ik hou van mijn familie.

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"Ik hou van mijn familie" uses "houden van" for love, with the stem shortened to "hou" in the first person. The preposition "van" is essential — without it the sentence would mean something closer to "I hold my family."

Where English speakers slip

The English "family" has three syllables with the beat on the first and a reduced middle; Dutch has four sounds' worth of vowel with the beat on the second. Front-stressing produces "FAM-i-lee," which sounds distinctly foreign. Keep both "ee" vowels full — neither reduces.