Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "de winter" in Dutch?

duh VIN-tur — soft lip-teeth w, a short tight i, and a weak second syllable.

de winter /də ˈʋɪntər/

Its rhythm matches the English word exactly, which makes this one of the rare Dutch nouns where an anglophone's instinct about stress is simply correct.

Listen: de winter

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Sound it out

w The lip rises toward the teeth without sealing, and the lips stay spread. Round them and you have simply said the English word.

i The English "winter" hands you this vowel unchanged, which is unusual and worth taking advantage of.

nt Both consonants said, with the t released cleanly rather than flapped or swallowed as it often is in American "winter."

er Schwa plus a faint r, so weak it should barely register as a syllable at all.

Hear it in a sentence

In de winter is het heel koud.

In winter it's very cold.

Listen: In de winter is het heel koud.

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"In de winter is het heel koud" opens with a prepositional phrase, which forces the verb ahead of the impersonal subject "het." That inversion is obligatory and this sentence is a compact example of it.

Where English speakers slip

Two English imports need removing: the rounded w and the American flapped t — "WIN-der" is what an American says, and Dutch keeps a real t. The -er ending also picks up a full r. None of these obscures the word, which is why they survive for years.