Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "het toilet" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce het toilet in Dutch?

het toilet is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ət tʋaːˈlɛt/. It means “toilet.” ut twah-LET — the "oi" is French-style "wah," and the beat is on the last syllable.

ut twah-LET — the "oi" is French-style "wah," and the beat is on the last syllable.

het toilet /ət tʋaːˈlɛt/

End-stressed, as the French source demands. Dutch has a whole shelf of these words — toilet, buffet, ballet, cadeau — and they all keep the accent on the final syllable, which is exactly backwards from the native Dutch habit.

Listen: het toilet

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Sound it out

t Unaspirated at the start, released quietly into the glide that follows.

oi Pronounced "wah," following the French original rather than any Dutch spelling rule. This digraph appears only in borrowings and always behaves this way.

l A bright forward l opening the stressed syllable.

et Short "eh" plus an unaspirated t, carrying the primary stress. It stays a full vowel because it is stressed.

Hear it in a sentence

Waar is het toilet?

Where is the toilet?

Listen: Waar is het toilet?

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"Waar is het toilet?" is one of the most useful questions in the language, and it shows the standard question shape: question word first, verb second, subject last. The reduced "het" barely registers between the verb and the noun.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers say "TOY-let," front-stressing and reading "oi" as the diphthong of "boy." Dutch says "twah-LET." Both halves of that need fixing together, since the wrong vowel and the wrong stress reinforce each other. Think of the French pronunciation and shorten it slightly.