Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het bed" in Dutch?

ut BET — short "eh," and the final d is pronounced as a t.

het bed /ət ˈbɛt/

The plural is instructive: "bedden" doubles the d both to keep the vowel short and to restore its voicing, so a single spelling change does two different jobs at once.

Listen: het bed

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Sound it out

b A voiced stop released cleanly with no breathy follow-through.

e Exactly the vowel of English "bet" — one of the few places where the cognate spelling and the sound agree completely.

d Written d, said as t, because it stands at the end of the word. The plural "bedden" doubles the consonant and restores the voiced d.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik ga vroeg naar bed.

I'm going to bed early.

Listen: Ik ga vroeg naar bed.

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"Ik ga vroeg naar bed" drops the article, which Dutch does in this fixed expression exactly as English does in "go to bed." The adverb "vroeg" between them contributes a velar fricative and the "oo" vowel.

Where English speakers slip

The whole difficulty is the final consonant: the spelling shows d and English speakers voice it, giving "bed" as in English. Dutch says "bet." Because the English word is identical in spelling and meaning, this is one of the easiest devoicing errors to make and the hardest to notice.