LingoDrop
Dutch · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "de man" in Dutch?
duh MAHN — a short open "ah" produced at the back of the mouth, not the flat American "a."
The plural "mannen" doubles the n in spelling precisely to keep this short vowel short. Were the plural spelled "manen" the vowel would have to lengthen — and "manen" is in fact a different word, meaning moons.
Listen: de man
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Hear it in a sentence
Die man is mijn oom.
That man is my uncle.
Listen: Die man is mijn oom.
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"Die man is mijn oom" opens with a demonstrative rather than an article, and "die" is correct because "man" is a de-word. The possessive "mijn" before "oom" is unstressed, so the sentence peaks on MAN and again on OOM.
Where English speakers slip
The English "man" is spelled identically and uses a much flatter, more forward vowel — that substitution is the whole error, and it is easy to miss because the word remains perfectly understandable. Open the throat and pull the vowel back. The word also means husband, which surprises learners in sentences about families.