Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "hoe" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce hoe in Dutch?

hoe is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɦu/. It means “how.” hoo — soft voiced h plus the "oo" of "boot." The oe is one vowel, not two.

hoo — soft voiced h plus the "oo" of "boot." The oe is one vowel, not two.

hoe /ɦu/

One syllable that carries the question's melodic peak, since Dutch question words are inherently prominent. In "hoe gaat het?" the pitch rises on HOE and then falls away, which is the opposite of the rising-at-the-end intonation English uses for yes/no questions.

Listen: hoe

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Sound it out

h Gentle and voiced, with the throat humming rather than puffing. The whole word is soft, and a hard English h makes it sound abrupt.

oe The "oo" of "boot," made with rounded lips and the tongue back. Two letters, one sound — this digraph never splits into "oh-eh."

Hear it in a sentence

Hoe gaat het met je?

How are you?

Listen: Hoe gaat het met je?

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"Hoe gaat het met je?" is idiomatic and untranslatable word for word — literally "how goes it with you." The g of "gaat" comes immediately after the vowel of "hoe," so the sentence asks you to move from a rounded back vowel straight into velar friction, which is a genuinely useful transition to drill.

Where English speakers slip

The spelling suggests "ho" or "hoy" to an English eye, and some learners produce a two-part vowel by reading o and e separately. It is a single "oo." The other error is the h: pronounced English-style with a burst of air, it makes the friendly greeting sound clipped, where Dutch h is soft enough to almost disappear.