Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de herfst" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de herfst in Dutch?

de herfst is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də ˈɦɛrfst/. It means “autumn / fall.” duh HERFST — soft voiced h, short "eh," and four consonants stacked at the end.

duh HERFST — soft voiced h, short "eh," and four consonants stacked at the end.

de herfst /də ˈɦɛrfst/

A single beat with an extraordinary consonant load. There is no plural in ordinary use and no inflection to relieve the cluster, so this word simply has to be practised as it stands — there is no easier related form to build from.

Listen: de herfst

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Sound it out

h Voiced and gentle, the vocal cords humming as the word begins rather than a sharp puff.

e Brief and lax, and it has to stay audible before the consonant avalanche behind it swallows the syllable.

rfst Four consonants in a row: a flick, an f, an s and a t. Dutch says all of them, in one gesture, with no vowel inserted anywhere — this is one of the language's densest word-endings.

Hear it in a sentence

De herfst heeft mooie kleuren.

Autumn has beautiful colors.

Listen: De herfst heeft mooie kleuren.

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"De herfst heeft mooie kleuren" uses "hebben" where English would say "has," and "kleuren" ends with the rounded eu vowel plus a schwa. So the sentence pairs Dutch's hardest consonant cluster with one of its hardest vowels.

Where English speakers slip

Everyone inserts a vowel — "HER-fust" — to make the ending sayable. Dutch does not. Practise it by building backwards: say "-fst" alone, then "-rfst," then add the vowel. Learners also over-aspirate the h, which Dutch keeps soft and voiced.