Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de steen" in Dutch?

duh STAYN — plain s (never "sht"), a long "ay," and a firm n.

de steen /də ˈsteːn/

The plural "stenen" drops one e as the syllable opens and adds a schwa, which is the standard Dutch alternation and leaves the stressed vowel sounding identical.

Listen: de steen

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

st A sharp s into a quiet t. Getting that s right is worth more here than any vowel adjustment.

ee Dutch's long e, held steady at one position. Lower than the English "ee" of "steen" as an English reader would guess it.

n A well-defined final n, tongue tip on the ridge, closing the vowel cleanly.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik vond een steen bij de rivier.

I found a stone near the river.

Listen: Ik vond een steen bij de rivier.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Ik vond een steen bij de rivier" uses the past tense "vond" from "vinden" and the preposition "bij" for proximity. The final noun is end-stressed, so the sentence peaks late after a run of unstressed function words.

Where English speakers slip

German speakers say "shtayn," importing a cluster Dutch does not have. English speakers brighten the vowel toward "seen." Dutch wants a clean s and a lower, longer "ay." And the plural spelling catches people in writing — "steenen" is an obsolete form, and modern Dutch writes "stenen."