Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de student" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de student in Dutch?

de student is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də stuˈdɛnt/. It means “student (at university).” duh stu-DENT — plain s (never "sht"), and the stress on the second syllable.

duh stu-DENT — plain s (never "sht"), and the stress on the second syllable.

de student /də stuˈdɛnt/

End-stressed, following the Latin-derived pattern shared by student, docent, moment and probleem. English stresses the first syllable of "student"; Dutch does the opposite, which makes this a systematic trap.

Listen: de student

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Sound it out

st Sharp s, quiet t — no "sht." This word is one of the clearest places to hear the Dutch-German split on this cluster.

u In this borrowing the u is a plain "oo" rather than the Dutch front rounded vowel — loanwords sometimes keep their source pronunciation.

d A voiced dental stop opening the stressed syllable, released without aspiration.

ent Short "eh" plus n and t, carrying the primary stress. All three sounds are released cleanly with no vowel wedged between the final two.

Hear it in a sentence

De student studeert in de bibliotheek.

The student studies in the library.

Listen: De student studeert in de bibliotheek.

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"De student studeert in de bibliotheek" pairs the noun with its verb "studeren," which is also end-stressed — stu-DEE-rt. "Bibliotheek" at the end is end-stressed too, so the sentence has three late peaks in a row.

Where English speakers slip

"STU-dent" is the English rhythm and it is wrong here. German learners add "shtudent" on top. Dutch says a clean s and puts the beat at the end. Once you notice that borrowed words in Dutch systematically end-stress, a whole layer of the vocabulary becomes predictable.