Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de sneeuw" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de sneeuw in Dutch?

de sneeuw is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də ˈsneːu/. It means “snow.” duh SNAY-oo — a long "ay" gliding into a rounded off-glide, all in one syllable.

duh SNAY-oo — a long "ay" gliding into a rounded off-glide, all in one syllable.

de sneeuw /də ˈsneːu/

One long beat, because the vowel has to travel from a mid-front position to a rounded one before the word ends. Like "nieuw," this word has more vowel movement packed into a single syllable than English usually allows.

Listen: de sneeuw

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Sound it out

sn A hissing s into an n. German palatalises this cluster; Dutch keeps the s sharp and moves straight to the nasal.

eeu A long "ay" that slides into a rounded off-glide — three letters, one continuous vowel movement, and it stays a single syllable throughout.

w Silent as a separate consonant here. It is a spelling convention marking where the glide ends, and adding an audible w gives the word a syllable it does not have.

Hear it in a sentence

Er ligt sneeuw in de bergen.

There's snow in the mountains.

Listen: Er ligt sneeuw in de bergen.

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"Er ligt sneeuw in de bergen" uses "liggen" as the posture verb — snow lies rather than simply being — and opens with the existential "er," which is obligatory here. The final "bergen" gives you a softened intervocalic g to contrast with the sentence's opening hiss.

Where English speakers slip

The English "snow" is meaning-adjacent and sound-distant: it has a single gliding "oh" where Dutch starts at "ay." Learners also pronounce the final w, producing "snay-oo-wuh" with an extra syllable. Say "ay," let the lips round, and stop.