Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het gras" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce het gras in Dutch?

het gras is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ət ˈɣrɑs/. It means “grass.” ut KHRAHS — the harsh Dutch g running into an r, an open back "ah," and a clean hiss.

ut KHRAHS — the harsh Dutch g running into an r, an open back "ah," and a clean hiss.

het gras /ət ˈɣrɑs/

Two very different fricatives frame this beat: one at the soft palate, one at the teeth. That makes it a compact drill for hearing where in the mouth each sound is made.

Listen: het gras

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Sound it out

gr Velar friction straight into a flick or scrape. Keep the airstream running from one into the other — stopping between them produces the broken "kuh-ras."

a Open and back, kept brief by the s that closes the syllable. Do not let it flatten toward English "grass."

s Hissed at the teeth, contrasting neatly with the velar friction that opened the word.

Hear it in a sentence

De kinderen spelen op het gras.

The children play on the grass.

Listen: De kinderen spelen op het gras.

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"De kinderen spelen op het gras" places "op" before the reduced article, so the phrase runs together as "op-ut-KHRAS." The plural "kinderen" contributes three syllables of which only the first is stressed, so the sentence has a long light stretch in the middle.

Where English speakers slip

The English "grass" supplies a hard g and, in American accents, a flat forward vowel. Dutch needs the velar scrape and an open back "ah." The gr- cluster also tempts learners to insert a schwa. Practise it beside "groot" and "graag" to build the same onset three ways.