Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het hoofd" in Dutch?

ut HOHFT — soft h, a long flat "oh," and the final d said as a t after the f.

het hoofd /ət ˈɦoːft/

One beat with a long vowel and a two-consonant close. The plural "hoofden" splits that cluster across the syllable boundary and restores the d's voicing, so the plural is both easier to say and phonetically more transparent.

Listen: het hoofd

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Sound it out

h Gentle and voiced, the vocal cords already humming as the word begins.

oo Long and steady, held at one tongue position. English "hoof" glides at the end of this vowel; Dutch does not.

fd An unusual final cluster: the f is voiceless, and the d that follows devoices to t under its influence and its final position. The result sounds like "-ft."

Hear it in a sentence

Mijn hoofd doet pijn.

My head hurts.

Listen: Mijn hoofd doet pijn.

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"Mijn hoofd doet pijn" uses "pijn doen" for hurting, which is a fixed verb-plus-noun combination Dutch prefers over any single verb. The ij of "pijn" gives the sentence a diphthong to balance the long "oh" of "hoofd."

Where English speakers slip

The fd cluster catches everyone: learners either voice the d, giving "hohfd," or drop it, giving "hohf." It surfaces as a t. Say "HOHFT." The h also gets over-aspirated on the English model, and the long vowel gets a glide it should not have.