Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "goed" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce goed in Dutch?

goed is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɣut/. It means “good.” khoot — the rasping Dutch g, then "oo" as in boot, ending in a t even though it is spelled d.

khoot — the rasping Dutch g, then "oo" as in boot, ending in a t even though it is spelled d.

goed /ɣut/

A single stressed syllable, and its rhythmic identity comes from the long "oe" vowel rather than from any syllable contrast. When it inflects into "goede" the stress stays exactly where it is and the final d becomes audible again as a real d, which is a useful way to hear that the t was only a surface effect.

Listen: goed

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Sound it out

g Back of the tongue arched toward the soft palate with a narrow gap; push air through until it scrapes. Think of the sound in Scottish "loch," then move it a touch further back and let it rasp harder.

oe A pure "oo" as in "boot," not the two-step "oh-eh" the letters suggest to an English eye. This digraph has exactly one value in Dutch.

d Written d, spoken t. Dutch devoices every voiced consonant at the end of a word, so "goed" ends the same way "boot" does.

Hear it in a sentence

Deze koffie is heel goed.

This coffee is very good.

Listen: Deze koffie is heel goed.

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"Deze koffie is heel goed" ends on the adjective, which is where Dutch parks predicate adjectives — and because it is sentence-final, the devoiced t is fully exposed with nothing after it to soften the landing. Notice "heel" doing the work English gives to "very."

Where English speakers slip

Three separate habits sabotage this word. English speakers say the g as the hard stop in "good"; they read "oe" as "oh" or "oo-eh"; and they finish with a voiced d because the spelling tells them to. The correct result is closer to "khoot" than to anything English would write. Of the three, the hard g is the most audible giveaway — Dutch g is friction you can sustain, not a click of the tongue.