Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "gek" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce gek in Dutch?

gek is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɣɛk/. It means “crazy.” khek — the harsh Dutch g, a short "eh," and a quiet k. Three sounds, one hard.

khek — the harsh Dutch g, a short "eh," and a quiet k. Three sounds, one hard.

gek /ɣɛk/

A useful drill precisely because it puts a fricative and a stop made at the same point of articulation on either side of a single vowel. If you can hear the difference between the two ends, your Dutch g is working.

Listen: gek

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Sound it out

g Raise the back of the tongue toward the soft palate and force air through until it rasps. With only three sounds in the word, there is nowhere to hide a weak one.

e A low front vowel, sealed by the k behind it and lasting no longer than it takes to say.

k A quiet stop released without a puff — and worth contrasting with the fricative that opened the word, since both are made in the same place.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik ben gek op ijs.

I'm crazy about ice cream.

Listen: Ik ben gek op ijs.

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"Ik ben gek op ijs" uses "gek op" idiomatically for being crazy about something, and "ijs" ends the sentence with a bare diphthong. The literal reading — I am crazy on ice — shows how far the idiom has travelled from its parts.

Where English speakers slip

Substituting a hard English g turns the word into an English-sounding "geck." It must be friction. Because the word is so short, this single error accounts for essentially the whole problem. Practise saying "gek" and "kek" alternately to feel the difference between fricative and stop.