Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het meisje" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce het meisje in Dutch?

het meisje is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ət ˈmɛiʃə/. It means “girl.” ut MAY-shuh — the ei diphthong, then "sj" as a single "sh," and a schwa at the end.

ut MAY-shuh — the ei diphthong, then "sj" as a single "sh," and a schwa at the end.

het meisje /ət ˈmɛiʃə/

Front-stressed on the diphthong, with the diminutive ending taking nothing. That -je suffix is always unstressed, and it also forces the noun to become neuter — which is why this word takes "het" even though it refers to a girl.

Listen: het meisje

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Sound it out

ei The Dutch diphthong rising from around "eh" toward "ee" — identical in sound to the ij spelling, and one of the two vowels a learner most needs to get right.

sj The s and j merge into a single "sh," as in English "ship." This combination is how Dutch spells a sound it has no native letter for, and it appears throughout the diminutive system.

e A closing schwa, colourless and weak, carrying the diminutive ending.

Hear it in a sentence

Het meisje zingt mooi.

The girl sings well.

Listen: Het meisje zingt mooi.

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"Het meisje zingt mooi" uses the adverb "mooi" without any ending, since Dutch adverbs and adjectives share the same bare form. The article is "het" purely because of the diminutive suffix, a piece of grammar that surprises every learner at least once.

Where English speakers slip

Reading ei as "eye" gives "MY-shuh," the standard beginner rendering. The diphthong starts mid-front. Learners also pronounce the s and j separately, producing "mice-yuh," when they merge into one "sh." And the neuter article catches people out: it is grammatical gender, not natural gender, doing the work.