LingoDrop
Dutch · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "en" in Dutch?
Like the "en" in English "end" without the d — a short "eh" and a clean n.
As a conjunction it is almost always unstressed, and in rapid speech the vowel can reduce toward a schwa — "jij ən ik." It gets a real beat only when someone is enumerating deliberately, as in listing items one by one.
Listen: en
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Jij en ik gaan naar de film.
You and I are going to the movies.
Listen: Jij en ik gaan naar de film.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"Jij en ik gaan naar de film" links two pronouns and then uses the plural verb "gaan," which English speakers often get wrong by reaching for the singular. Notice the rhythm: two stressed pronouns with the unstressed "en" squeezed between them, then the verb.
Where English speakers slip
The word is so small that the danger is not mispronouncing it but over-pronouncing it — English speakers give it a full, deliberate vowel as though it were the important word in the sentence. It should be light and quick. Some also lengthen the vowel toward "ayn," confusing it with "één" (one), which is a completely different word with a long vowel.