Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het geld" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce het geld in Dutch?

het geld is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ət ˈɣɛlt/. It means “money.” ut KHELT — the harsh Dutch g, a short "eh," a bright l, and a final d said as a t.

ut KHELT — the harsh Dutch g, a short "eh," a bright l, and a final d said as a t.

het geld /ət ˈɣɛlt/

One dense beat with a fricative at the front and a cluster at the back. The compounds this noun builds — "geldautomaat," "zakgeld" — place the accent according to their own rules, but the root always keeps its scraping opening.

Listen: het geld

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Sound it out

g Raise the back of the tongue toward the soft palate, leave a narrow channel, and force air through until it rasps. This is a sound you can hold; a k is not.

e The vowel of "belt," boxed in by the cluster behind it and gone almost at once.

ld A bright l followed by a d that devoices to t at the end of the word. The plural "gelden" would restore the genuine d.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik heb niet genoeg geld.

I don't have enough money.

Listen: Ik heb niet genoeg geld.

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"Ik heb niet genoeg geld" runs the fricative of "genoeg" straight into the fricative of "geld," giving two velar scrapes with only a brief vowel between them. It is one of the better sentences in the course for drilling that sound under pressure.

Where English speakers slip

The English "gelt" and "gold" both supply a hard g, and that substitution removes the word's most distinctive feature. Keep the air scraping. The final d then gets voiced on the strength of the spelling — it is a t. And the l should stay bright, not darken into the hollow English l of "held."