Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de kleur" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de kleur in Dutch?

de kleur is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də ˈkløːr/. It means “color.” duh KLUHR — the eu is a rounded front vowel, like French "eu," with no English equivalent.

duh KLUHR — the eu is a rounded front vowel, like French "eu," with no English equivalent.

de kleur /də ˈkløːr/

The article is weightless and the noun carries everything: duh-KLEUR. When it pluralises to "kleuren," the stress stays on the same syllable and a schwa syllable is simply appended, so the rhythm of the word never shifts.

Listen: de kleur

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Sound it out

de The common-gender article, always reduced to "duh" with a schwa. It leans on the noun and never takes a beat of its own.

kl An unaspirated k running into a clear l. Dutch l before a vowel is bright, made with the tongue tip forward, not the dark hollow l of English "cool."

eu Round your lips as if for "oo," then move the tongue forward into the position for "ay" and hold both at once. The result is the vowel of French "deux" or German "schön" — it exists nowhere in English.

r A soft closing r, either tapped or scraped at the back, and light enough not to swallow the vowel before it.

Hear it in a sentence

Wat is je favoriete kleur?

What's your favorite color?

Listen: Wat is je favoriete kleur?

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"Wat is je favoriete kleur?" ends on the noun, and the adjective "favoriete" takes the -e ending required before a de-word. That ending is itself a schwa, so the sentence flows through three unstressed syllables before hitting the rounded vowel of "kleur" at the end.

Where English speakers slip

Almost every English speaker reads eu as "you" or "oo," giving "kloor" or "klyoor." Neither is close. The trick is mechanical: set your lips for "oo" and your tongue for "ay" simultaneously and do not let either slide. A second, subtler error is letting an English r colour the vowel backwards; keep the rounded vowel pure and add the r only at the very end.