Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de koffie" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de koffie in Dutch?

de koffie is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də ˈkɔfi/. It means “coffee.” duh KOF-fee — short rounded o under the stress, and a bright "ee" at the end.

duh KOF-fee — short rounded o under the stress, and a bright "ee" at the end.

de koffie /də ˈkɔfi/

Front-stressed, with the second syllable keeping a full vowel rather than collapsing — a feature of borrowed words in Dutch. Compare "familie" and "politie," which also hold their final "ee," though those two put the accent later in the word.

Listen: de koffie

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Sound it out

k Quiet on release, with none of the aspiration English gives the k in "coffee."

o Lips slightly pursed and the vowel kept brief — British "coffee" rather than American, which unrounds and lengthens it.

ff One f in speech. The doubled letter is a spelling device protecting the short o, not an instruction to hold the consonant.

ie A full bright "ee" even though the syllable is unstressed. Dutch does not reduce this vowel to a schwa the way English reduces the ending of "coffee."

Hear it in a sentence

Ik drink 's ochtends koffie.

I drink coffee in the morning.

Listen: Ik drink 's ochtends koffie.

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"Ik drink 's ochtends koffie" uses the fossilised genitive "'s ochtends" for habitual time — a leftover of an older case system that survives only in these fixed adverbs. There is no article before "koffie," as with all mass nouns in general statements.

Where English speakers slip

The English "coffee" reduces its final syllable to a weak "-ee" and unrounds the first vowel. Dutch keeps both vowels clear and rounds the o. Learners also hold the double f. The word is one of the most-used in the language, so these small errors get a lot of airtime.