Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het boek" in Dutch?

ut BOOK — the "oo" of boot, and an unaspirated k. It rhymes with "look" only loosely.

het boek /ət ˈbuk/

A single beat resting on a rounded vowel. The plural adds a schwa syllable without touching the accent, and it is worth saying "boek" and "boeken" back to back to hear how completely Dutch protects the stressed syllable.

Listen: het boek

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Sound it out

b A clean voiced stop released without any breathy follow-through.

oe Longer and tenser than the vowel in English "book," which is lax and short. That difference is small but consistently audible.

k Unaspirated, released quietly. The plural "boeken" moves it between vowels where it softens a little.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik lees een interessant boek.

I'm reading an interesting book.

Listen: Ik lees een interessant boek.

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"Ik lees een interessant boek" leaves the adjective uninflected before a neuter noun with "een," and "interessant" is a loanword with final-syllable stress. So the sentence peaks late on the adjective and then drops onto the noun.

Where English speakers slip

The English "book" has a lax, short vowel; Dutch "boek" has a tense, longer one. The difference is real and audible. Learners also read "oe" as "oh" when going letter by letter. And aspirating the k gives the word a small explosion at the end that Dutch does not have.