Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de jurk" in Dutch?

duh YURK — the j is a y-sound, and the u is short and rounded.

de jurk /də ˈjʏrk/

A rounded vowel squeezed between a glide and a consonant cluster, all in one beat. The plural "jurken" splits the rk across the syllable boundary, which gives the r somewhere to breathe.

Listen: de jurk

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Sound it out

j The y of "yes," as every Dutch j is. The word opens like "york," never like "jerk."

u Short with the lips slightly pursed — a rounded central vowel. English speakers unround it into the vowel of "jerk," which is the standard substitution.

rk A brief flick into a quiet k, released together and neither of them stretching the syllable.

Hear it in a sentence

Deze jurk is heel mooi.

This dress is very pretty.

Listen: Deze jurk is heel mooi.

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"Deze jurk is heel mooi" uses the demonstrative for a de-word and ends on "mooi," whose diphthong travels from a rounded "oh" toward "ee." So the sentence contains two quite different rounded vowels, one short and one long.

Where English speakers slip

Two errors stack: the English j and an unrounded vowel, giving "jerk." Dutch says "YURK" with pursed lips. The j is the more audible of the two and worth fixing first, since it applies to every j in the language. The rounding then makes the word sound genuinely Dutch rather than approximated.