Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de fiets" in Dutch?

duh FEETS — a clean f, a long "ee," and a t-s cluster with no vowel between them.

de fiets /də ˈfits/

One beat with a long vowel wedged between two crisp consonant groups. The plural "fietsen" adds a schwa and splits the ts across the syllable boundary, so the longer form is noticeably easier to say than the singular.

Listen: de fiets

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Sound it out

f A plain voiceless f, made with the lower lip against the upper teeth — no adjustment needed from English.

ie A long bright "ee," the only vowel here and the carrier of the beat.

ts An unaspirated t running straight into a hiss, said as one gesture. English has this cluster in "cats," so the mechanics are familiar even if the position in the word is not.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik ga met de fiets.

I'm going by bike.

Listen: Ik ga met de fiets.

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"Ik ga met de fiets" uses "met de fiets" as the fixed expression for "by bike," complete with its article — Dutch does not drop it here the way English does. The phrase is one of the most-used in the country and worth memorising whole.

Where English speakers slip

Learners insert a vowel to ease the final cluster, giving "FEE-tuhs," or they read "ie" as the diphthong of "pies." Both need fixing. Note too that Dutch has no separate word for cycling as a mode — "met de fiets" plus a motion verb is how you say it.