Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de vraag" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de vraag in Dutch?

de vraag is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də ˈvraːx/. It means “question.” duh FRAHKH — soft v, quick r, a long open "aah," and the harsh fricative to close.

duh FRAHKH — soft v, quick r, a long open "aah," and the harsh fricative to close.

de vraag /də ˈvraːx/

One beat, and it is the same word as the verb "vragen" minus its ending, with the accent in the same place. Dutch builds nouns from verb stems without moving the stress or changing anything else, so the two are related by simple subtraction.

Listen: de vraag

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Sound it out

vr A half-devoiced v running straight into a tap or scrape. The two are made in different parts of the mouth, which is what makes this onset awkward.

aa Wide open and held at full length. It is the only vowel here and has to carry the whole beat between two demanding consonant groups.

g Voiceless friction closing a word that already opened with a difficult cluster. The plural "vragen" softens it considerably by putting a vowel behind it.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik heb een vraag.

I have a question.

Listen: Ik heb een vraag.

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"Ik heb een vraag" is short enough that the word's two hard edges are exposed — the vr- cluster at the front and the fricative at the back, with nothing after it to soften the landing.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners insert a vowel into the vr- cluster, giving "fuh-RAHKH," and they turn the final g into a hard English g. Both need attention. Practise it beside "vragen," where the g sits between vowels and is much gentler — hearing the pair makes the word-final version easier to place.