Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de wind" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce de wind in Dutch?

de wind is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /də ˈʋɪnt/. It means “wind.” duh VINT — soft lip-teeth w, a short tight i, and the final d said as a t.

duh VINT — soft lip-teeth w, a short tight i, and the final d said as a t.

de wind /də ˈʋɪnt/

A brief beat closed by a cluster. This noun is heavily used in weather compounds — windkracht, tegenwind, windmolen — and in all of them it keeps its own stressed syllable while the compound's accent lands by its own rules.

Listen: de wind

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Sound it out

w Lower lip to the upper teeth, lightly. Round the lips and you have simply said the English word instead.

i Short and lax, the vowel of English "wind" — one of the rare cases where the cognate spelling hands you the right sound.

nd Both consonants said, with the d devoicing to t at the end of the word. The plural "winden" restores the genuine d between vowels.

Hear it in a sentence

Er staat vandaag veel wind.

It's very windy today.

Listen: Er staat vandaag veel wind.

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"Er staat vandaag veel wind" uses "staan" idiomatically for wind, which English cannot mirror at all — a literal translation would be "there stands a lot of wind." It is one of the collocations you simply have to memorise.

Where English speakers slip

The English "wind" is spelled identically and supplies a rounded w and a voiced final d. Dutch changes both. The w is the audible one; the devoiced t is the subtle one. And the idiom is the deeper trap — "het is winderig" or "er staat wind," never "er is wind."