Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "hetzelfde" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce hetzelfde in Dutch?

hetzelfde is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɦətˈsɛlfdə/. It means “the same.” ut-SELF-duh — the stress lands on SELF, and the "tz" collapses into a single s sound.

ut-SELF-duh — the stress lands on SELF, and the "tz" collapses into a single s sound.

hetzelfde /ɦətˈsɛlfdə/

The accent has nowhere to go but the middle: the first syllable is a fused article and the last is an inflectional ending, and neither can carry weight. The word ends up shaped like a small phrase with a peak in the centre.

Listen: hetzelfde

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Sound it out

het- The reduced neuter article fused onto the front, said as a bare "ut" with no h and no full vowel.

tz The t of "het" and the z of "zelfde" merge into one voiceless s. Nobody pronounces both letters; the boundary between the two original words has worn away.

elf The stressed core: short "eh," bright l, and an f. Keep the l forward rather than darkening it as English does in "self."

de A weak closing syllable, d plus schwa, trailing off the end of the word.

Hear it in a sentence

We hebben hetzelfde probleem.

We have the same problem.

Listen: We hebben hetzelfde probleem.

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"We hebben hetzelfde probleem" uses the het-form because "probleem" is neuter; with a de-word you would say "dezelfde." The word therefore encodes gender agreement inside itself, which is unusual and worth noticing in this sentence.

Where English speakers slip

Learners pronounce the "t" and the "z" separately, producing "het-ZELF-duh" with an audible break. The two have merged into a single s. Choosing the wrong form is the parallel error: "hetzelfde" and "dezelfde" split by the noun's gender, and English speakers, having no gendered articles, reach for whichever they learned first.