Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het blad" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce het blad in Dutch?

het blad is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ət ˈblɑt/. It means “leaf.” ut BLAHT — a bright l, an open back "ah," and the final d said as a t.

ut BLAHT — a bright l, an open back "ah," and the final d said as a t.

het blad /ət ˈblɑt/

This noun has two plurals with different meanings — "bladen" for sheets or trays, "bladeren" for leaves — and both lengthen the stressed vowel as the syllable opens, so neither sounds much like the singular.

Listen: het blad

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

bl A voiced b into a light forward l, with the tongue body kept low so the cluster stays bright.

a Open and back, kept short by the consonant closing the syllable. English "blat" would use a flatter, more forward vowel.

d Written d, said as t. The plurals "bladen" and "bladeren" both restore the voiced d and lengthen the vowel as the syllable opens.

Hear it in a sentence

Het blad valt van de boom.

The leaf falls from the tree.

Listen: Het blad valt van de boom.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Het blad valt van de boom" uses "vallen" and the preposition "van" for falling from something. The article and the preposition are both unstressed, so the sentence has just three beats: BLAD, VALT and BOOM.

Where English speakers slip

Spelling drives the error: the written d gets voiced when it should surface as a t. Learners also flatten the vowel toward English "blat" and darken the l. And the two plurals are a genuine trap — using "bladen" for tree leaves is wrong, and it is the kind of error a dictionary will not warn you about.