Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "jong" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce jong in Dutch?

jong is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /jɔŋ/. It means “young.” yong — the j is a y-sound, and ng is a single nasal with no hard g after it.

yong — the j is a y-sound, and ng is a single nasal with no hard g after it.

jong /jɔŋ/

The nasal closes this one beat off. Inflect it to "jonge" and something worth hearing happens: the ng stays a single nasal even with a vowel behind it, so "jonge" is "YONG-uh," never "YON-guh." English speakers reliably get this wrong when the word grows.

Listen: jong

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Sound it out

j The y of "yes." Dutch never gives this letter the affricate value English does, so the word opens like "young," not like "jungle."

o Lips rounded, vowel brief — British "long" rather than American. The nasal behind it seals the syllable.

ng One velar nasal, exactly the sound ending English "sing." No separate g follows — Dutch does not do the "fin-ger" pronunciation anywhere.

Hear it in a sentence

Hij is nog jong.

He's still young.

Listen: Hij is nog jong.

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"Hij is nog jong" pairs the adjective with "nog," meaning "still," and both words end in a back-of-the-mouth consonant — the velar fricative in "nog" and the velar nasal in "jong." Saying them in sequence is a good check that you are distinguishing the two.

Where English speakers slip

The English j is the reflex error, turning "jong" into "jong" with the sound of "jaw." It is a y. The other habit shows up in the inflected form, where English speakers insert a hard g: "jon-guh." Dutch keeps the nasal alone. And the vowel wants lip rounding, unlike the American "ah" in "long."