Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de tuin" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de tuin in Dutch?

de tuin is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də ˈtœyn/. It means “garden.” duh TOWN — but the ui is a rounded diphthong unlike anything in English, and this is not the word "town."

duh TOWN — but the ui is a rounded diphthong unlike anything in English, and this is not the word "town."

de tuin /də ˈtœyn/

One beat, but a long one — the diphthong needs time to travel from its rounded start to its glide. The plural "tuinen" adds a schwa and gives the vowel a softer landing, which makes it a useful practice form.

Listen: de tuin

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Sound it out

t Released quietly with no puff of air, opening straight into the difficult diphthong.

ui Start with the lips rounded and the tongue mid-front, near French "deux," then glide toward a loose "uh" while keeping the rounding. English "ow" starts wide open and unrounded, which is a completely different gesture.

n A clean final n cutting the diphthong off rather than letting it trail away.

Hear it in a sentence

Onze tuin is klein.

Our garden is small.

Listen: Onze tuin is klein.

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"Onze tuin is klein" uses "onze" rather than "ons" because "tuin" is a de-word — Dutch possessives inflect for gender in the first person plural, which is an oddity worth noticing. The adjective at the end carries the ei diphthong.

Where English speakers slip

Reading ui as the "ow" of "town" is the near-universal error, and it makes the word sound like the English word it is not. Purse the lips before you start and keep them pursed as the tongue moves. This one vowel appears in huis, uit, buiten, sluiten and dozens more, so it repays the effort.