Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de fles" in Dutch?

duh FLESS — a clean f, a bright l, a short "eh," and a plain hiss.

de fles /də ˈflɛs/

The plural doubles the s to protect the short vowel, then adds a schwa. The accented syllable therefore sounds identical in singular and plural, which is the norm for this whole class of Dutch nouns.

Listen: de fles

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Sound it out

fl A voiceless f into a bright forward l, both made near the front of the mouth and both straightforward for English speakers.

e The vowel of "less," boxed in by consonants on both sides and over in an instant.

s A clean voiceless hiss closing the word. The plural "flessen" doubles it in spelling to keep the vowel short.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik koop een fles water.

I'm buying a bottle of water.

Listen: Ik koop een fles water.

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"Ik koop een fles water" again juxtaposes the container and the substance with no preposition. "Koop" restores the doubled vowel in spelling because the syllable has closed, which is the same alternation seen throughout Dutch verb conjugation.

Where English speakers slip

There is little to get wrong phonetically here, which makes this one of the easier words in the course — the l should stay bright and the vowel short, and nothing else needs adjustment. The risk is the opposite: over-thinking a word that genuinely transfers well.