Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "een" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce een in Dutch?

een is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ən/. It means “a / an.” As the article it is just "uhn" — a schwa and an n, nothing like the numeral "één."

As the article it is just "uhn" — a schwa and an n, nothing like the numeral "één."

een /ən/

Structurally incapable of taking stress. If a beat lands on it, the listener will hear the numeral "one" instead of the article "a" — which is precisely why Dutch invented the accented spelling "één" to disambiguate the two in writing.

Listen: een

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Sound it out

ee Despite the doubled letter, the indefinite article reduces to a bare schwa. Only the numeral "één" (usually written with accents) keeps the long "ay" that this spelling normally represents.

n A quick final n that often links directly into the following noun, so "een koffie" comes out as "uhn-KOF-fee" in one gesture.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik wil graag een koffie.

I would like a coffee.

Listen: Ik wil graag een koffie.

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"Ik wil graag een koffie" packs three unstressed syllables together in the middle — "graag een" flows as "khraakh-uhn" — with the peak arriving only on KOF-fee. "Graag" is what turns the blunt "ik wil" into a polite request; without it the sentence sounds like a demand.

Where English speakers slip

Reading the double e at face value produces "ayn," which converts every "a coffee" into "one coffee." Dutch speakers will understand you but will hear an odd insistence on the number. Train the reduced "uhn" as the default and reserve the long vowel for when you genuinely mean one and not two.