Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "gaan" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce gaan in Dutch?

gaan is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɣaːn/. It means “to go.” khaan — the scraping g followed by a long open "aah" and a final n.

khaan — the scraping g followed by a long open "aah" and a final n.

gaan /ɣaːn/

A single-syllable infinitive, one of the small closed group where the -en ending has been absorbed. That gives it a compact, punchy rhythm compared to a verb like "maken," and it means the whole word can sit at the end of a clause without trailing off into a schwa.

Listen: gaan

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Sound it out

g Back of the tongue raised toward the soft palate, air forced through a narrow gap until it rasps. It is a sound you can hold indefinitely, which is exactly what separates it from a k or a hard g.

aa Roughly twice the length of the short a in "dat." The doubling marks that explicitly, and the vowel wants real duration.

n A clean final n that is part of the root and never dropped.

Hear it in a sentence

We gaan naar het park.

We're going to the park.

Listen: We gaan naar het park.

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"We gaan naar het park" is a plain present tense doing future duty — Dutch rarely bothers with a separate future construction for planned events. Notice the reduced "het" before "park," so the second half of the sentence flows as "naar-ut-PARK" with no stress until the noun.

Where English speakers slip

The hard English g in "gone" is the default substitution and it is instantly audible to a Dutch ear. This word is one of the best places to drill the fricative because the vowel after it is long and gives you time to hear whether the friction was real. Learners also clip the aa toward the short vowel of "gan," which makes the word sound rushed.